A mouth-watering blend of artists, who since dropping their beautifully dark video for ‘The Acres/The Ache’ via Relapse in February, have had my ears quivering in anticipation of this debut album. Much like the pending release of Point Blank (Roadrunner) did all those years ago, when during the height of Sepultura’s meteoric rise, Max Cavalera joined forces with Fudge Tunnel’s Alex Newport to create their notoriously heavy ‘Supergroup’ side project Nailbomb.
With Absent In Body, it is Max’s brother and human drumming machine Iggor Cavalera (ex Sepultura / Cavalera Conspiracy) who is experimenting with some of post-metal’s most inspiring musicians, the equally legendary Neurosis guitar/vocalist Scott Kelly, and Amenra’s Mathieu J. Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Colin H. Van Eeckhout (vocals/bass).
The group’s origins very much belong within Amenra’s Church of Ra collective of musical projects, when in 2015 Vandekerckhove initially joined forces with Kelly and Van Eeckhout, releasing one single ‘The Abyss Stares Back – Vol. V’ in 2017, a slow earth-shattering mix of industrial and doom metal, with a gloriously bleak accompanying video.
‘Rise From Ruins’ opens the record with eerie samples, swirling synths and an ominous slow building beat, evoking memories of eighties Horror, before crashing into life with Kelly and Van Eeckhout trading vocal parts as the track sublimely flips between the distorted and melodic. This is swiftly followed by the clanking industrial groove of ‘In Spite Of Spite’, with the album running through five tracks and thirty-eight minutes of chaotic energy. But there are also some mesmerising moments of calm throughout, utilising the skills from the whole sum of its parts, who, with decades worth of experience between them, have come together to create something quite uniquely exquisite.
Recorded at Amenra bassist Tim De Gieter’s Much Luv Recording Studios in Belgium, the highest points come with ‘Sarin’, a slow and wonderfully hypnotic sludge, with a simple riff that combines perfectly with an intoxicating vocal hook. And record closer ‘The Half Rising Man’, a track full of emotion with an intro that weaves through your subconscious, before dropping into life with vocals which sound like they’ve been dragged from the pits of hell, sitting over Cavalera’s pondering beat, while stabbing guitars and synths subtly build in the background.
Plague God appears to themed around the questionable pain of faith in life and death, with a haunting emotion that lyrically accompanies the music perfectly. The record is a passionate release which will grow with repeat listening. It’s short and to the point, and if your musical tastes are anything like mine, will without a doubt leave you wanting more.
Buy the album here: https://store.relapse.com/absent-in-body-plague-god
8 / 10