ALBUM REVIEW: Ascent From The Mundane – Near Death Condition
Following an eight-year hiatus, the self-described ‘bleak death metal’ band NEAR DEATH CONDITION have returned with their new collection of grating slabs of misanthropy, titled Ascent From The Mundane. It’s not an unreasonable thing for worry to set in when a band leaves this much space between outputs, as it can often be easy for them to lose sight of the original intent of their projects. However, it can also be argued that with eight years of refinement, we may possibly be looking at the best work of their career, but which outcome will ring true?
From its opening moments, it is painfully obvious that when NEAR DEATH CONDITION refer to themselves as ‘bleak’, they are not messing around. Opener Witness Of The Martyr supplies us our first glimpse of the maddeningly heavy territory the band occupies. It’s a sweltering mesh of grating, discordant guitar work, bludgeoning rhythm and a vocal performance that you could almost be convinced is coming straight from the tormented throat of a medieval flagellant. Hence the title, presumably.
Nothing From Naught begins on a jerky, lurching riff. The tempo is slower than its predecessor but still by no means less intense, with swirls of melodic sensibility smeared like blood upon the unassailable walls of the furious, unforgiving rhythm. One of the most engaging elements of NEAR DEATH CONDITION’s sound is that vocal style, that gnarled yell that seems to add streaks of maddening desperation to the music. The intensity does not let up for Wisdom Of Meaninglessness either, which feels like what it may sound like inside the head of a fledgling serial murderer just before their last, rational synapse blows and they head out on the hunt – that being an abyssal vortex of suffocating intensity and mind-bending aggression.
Heading into the album’s middle segment we find a moment’s respite in the form of Enlightenment. This is a brilliant inclusion, a quiet, calm piece played on a piano, a salve for your poor pummelled ears and brain before The Bridal Chamber kicks back in like a sledgehammer to the sternum. It’s not as intense as the track before last, but it is something of a filthy, caustic waltz with a thoroughly bone-splintering gallop in its middle segment. It’s absolutely vertebrae cracking stuff.
Turning towards Ascent From The Mundane’s closing moments we find Astral Journey, which does almost exactly what it says on the tin. There is a slightly more restrained, spacier feel to begin with, complete with a breezy, floating solo, but then it kicks into a grinding, inescapable slog that builds speed and intensity. There are brief pockets of breathing room though in the form of slower, crunchier riffs and cosmic sounding melody. It’s essentially NEAR DEATH CONDITION with only a small flash of the warping, deranged melody often employed by BLOOD INCANTATION.
Unfortunately though, the album moreso fizzles out than goes out with a bang, with the title track Ascent From The Mundane featuring an unforgiving riff, a skull-cracker even, with suitably deranged vocals going and a fiercely discordant cadence. What is unfortunate though, is the lack of much meaningful variation throughout. There is a nice solo and a riff change here and there but a lot of time feels like it is spent waiting for something really massive, excessive and attention-grabbing to happen, the final devastating salvo to come and demolish what is left of the listener. The fact that this never really seems to materialise is a real shame.
Interestingly the album’s outro is split into two. The first piece, And Then We Have Shined Above All…, is pretty gorgeous, a sensitive, reflective piano arrangement that seeps into the listener’s brain and washes any bleak unpleasantness right out from between the wrinkles. Lovely stuff. The second, …In Eternal Embrace, is much stranger, sounding like it’s being played backwards. It’s very highbrow and even creepy, but it’s nothing to really write home about, feeling unnecessary after the piano motif which has run throughout the album was explored a track earlier.
Overall, NEAR DEATH CONDITION have produced a solid effort here. It’s tormented, bleak, hopeless and yet weirdly beautiful at points. It’s certainly an interesting listen and one that begs the question of where is this project going to take us next? They just really need to work on their closers…
Rating: 8/10
Ascent From The Mundane is out now via Unique Leader Records.
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