The Severed Inception

This is the debut from Inevitable End, a Swedish deathgrind band on Relapse; information that will no doubt have comparisons flooding into your mind immediately. Funnily enough, as this album kicks off I’m reminded of Gorguts’s Obscura more than anything else, including Nasum. It’s a tangled mess of grunts, riffs like an industrial accident, and merciless drumming that seems to crunch together as one repulsive organism, hell-bent on whisking the village’s children away into the night and grinding them into dog food.

This is chaotic, flamboyant, and densely packed deathgrind that bludgeons the listener to the extent that you wonder if the effect is being lost as the album progresses. It’s rare that such a relentless horror parade can be maintained, and you end up placing this in more straightforward brutal death territory. It’s fortunate then, that the band has plenty of ideas of its own, particularly as we move further into the album. The more metallic riffing of Persevering Incitement is a highlight. Then there’s a brief flash of a heavy metal solo in Firstborn of all Dead, bringing in a hint of light, before we are plunged back into a darkness blacker than ever with the abstract, mutilated stomp of Apprentice Luminous Acquaintance. Throughout there is a filthy seam of discordant instrumental anguish, as with the harrowing off-key squeals overlaying the deep thunderous roll of Dreamsight Synopsis.

The musicianship, unsurprisingly for a record such as this, is generally impressive, and it’s good to see the drums being dragged to centre stage in The Art of Corruption; easily the best track here. It veers into the leftfield twists and turns of fellow Relapse grindsters Antigama juxtaposing immense groove with prolonged spasms of virtuosic metallic pain.

As that’s the closer, it leaves you on a real high, but the rest of the record perhaps doesn’t contain enough to give it a unique identity. Then again, their riffs are frequently inventive and ear-catching, and there are hints of an adventurous spirit that will hopefully be developed. Nonetheless, I’d really like to have heard more light and shade. Acolytes of brutal and technical death, as well as the more metallically-inclined grind fans should probably listen to this. Whilst it won’t change your world, it will spark your interest in a band with plenty more to offer.