ALBUM REVIEW: Inverse Rapture – Tithe

Portland’s TITHE are one of those bands that seem to develop in leaps and bounds with each record they release. From their self-titled 2017 EP, which showcased a fierce and monolithic take on death-doom, through to their harder, more grindcore-inflected debut album Penance in 2020, the band seem to make impressive shifts with each release they put out. Their latest, second album, Inverse Rapture, is no exception, blending together the best elements of their first two records and applying a heightened musicianship and polished production to it, with the result being arguably the band’s very best work to date, and an album that is sure to establish the trio to a much wider audience.

Anthropogenic Annihilation provides a massive, groove-laden start to proceedings, built around huge, muscular guitars, bursts of frenetic intensity and arid, tortured vocals. Blending together weighty death metal elements with more belligerent grindcore, it’s a great track that manages to be monolithic and rabid in equal measure, making for a very strong opening effort. Inverse Rapture, with its slower, more ponderous sound, utilises eerie lead guitars, energetic drumming and feral vocals to great effect, taking the foundations laid on the first offering and developing them into a more bellicose and aggressive style with a dark, dramatic edge underpinning everything.

Demon is short and frenzied, leaning very heavily into the band’s grindcore influences for a caustic, unrelenting whirlwind of dizzying guitars, punishing drums and visceral, acidic vocals that all possess a sense of urgency and ferocity that is unmatched by the two preceding tracks. Parasite, similarly to Inverse Rapture, has some brilliant, crawling guitar lines and more measured passages in amongst the harsher ones that lend a brooding aspect to this song’s sound, along with angular, jarring death metal hooks and discordant flourishes that allow this to be almost as impactful as what came before it, but in a very different way.

Killing Tree takes the formula that dominated the sound of both Inverse Rapture and Parasite and draws it out, crafting a longer piece of music out of the same immersive and bestial elements that made those two tracks stand out so well. The bleak riffs, cacophonous drums and forceful, eclectic range of vocals on display, ranging from hellish shrieks to throaty, bellowing roars, make full use of this song’s sprawling nature, blending together all of the album’s best components whilst making room for a few, subtle additions to the sound. It’s an engrossing and expansive slab of death-doom with some impressive grindcore thrown in for good measure.

Luciferian Pathways Of The Forked Tongue is driven by its fantastic guitars, which prove to be more imaginative and varied than on earlier numbers, incorporating ethereal moments and chunkier, palm muted chugs at various points to make for an interesting and adventurous take on the band’s sound that seems incredibly inspired. Pseudologia Fantastica, another brief shock of blistering tempos, unhinged musicianship and feral vocals, is another track that embraces grindcore wholly, interspersed with foreboding death-doom flourishes peppered throughout, making for a short but extremely powerful climax to the album.

As an introduction to a wider audience, Inverse Rapture is arguably TITHE‘s most definitive record, standing as their best material to date, and by no small margin. On every front, from the music itself through to the artwork and the production quality, Inverse Rapture marks a huge step up from Penance, with the music being far more varied and technically proficient, and the song-writing blending the various elements in the band’s sound far more effectively, allowing the band to create a more eclectic and expansive sound than on their debut. They have managed, probably more so than many other bands do, to build significantly on the foundations of their earliest material, trimming away almost all the fat within their sound and making this album stand in contrast with some of those records quite starkly.

Rating: 8/10

Inverse Rapture is out now via Profound Lore Records.

Follow TITHE on Bandcamp.