EP REVIEW: Abhorrent Rapture – Witch Vomit
The death metal revival of recent years shows no signs of slowing down as wave after wave of quality bands emerge from the depths of metal’s underground. After kicking down the door and putting their name on the map with 2019’s superb sophomore offering, Buried Deep In A Bottomless Grave, Portland’s WITCH VOMIT are establishing themselves as one of the juggernauts in the genre’s resurgence. Now comes Abhorrent Rapture, a concise offering of four new songs, surprise released last week via 20 Buck Spin.
Picking up right where Buried Deep In A Bottomless Grave let off, WITCH VOMIT blast, contort and bombard you in a twenty minutes that can only be described as aural hellfire. Puruluent Burial Mould is an excellent opener to the EP as murky riffs dynamically snap and change from a pulverising death metal smash and grab to thrash-tinged passages that just encourage the head to bang whilst vocalist Tempter impresses with a solid and consistent execution of guttural vocal snarls.
As akin to any of their previous material, WITCH VOMIT go for the throat and refuse to loosen their stranglehold, conjuring and maintaining a suffocating atmosphere as you gasp for air. Funeral Purgation‘s high-tempo start enables adrenaline to soar before devolving into a doom-laden crawl which is intoxicating as it is punishing really allows to the sound to breathe and expand far beyond a typical death metal soundscape whilst Necrometamorphosis is an entirely different beast. Whereas Funeral Purgation‘s almost refrained and expansive approach allows the more foul-smelling odour of their sound to permeate and linger, Necrometamorphosis is a rabid and devouring monster of whirlwind riffing and divebombing solos and that pummels you within an inch of your life.
If there is any criticism that can be drawn from this EP, is that is just far too short. At just 18 minutes, Abhorrent Rapture is a concise little package from the Portland-based bruisers and with the quality being of such a high calibre, especially the title track finale which showcases WITCH VOMIT firing on all cylinders in a exhilarating four minutes of death metal mastery, you just want to feast on a main course rather than settle for appetisers.
For those left clamouring for more WITCH VOMIT after 2019’s outstanding effort, Abhorrent Rapture ticks all the right boxes. Utterly brutal and showcasing a band with the wind in the sails, this EP should be enough to tide us over until their next record arrives in the near future. And judging on the quality of these four songs, whatever comes next from the band will surely be another bout of utterly savage death metal.
Rating: 8/10
Abhorrent Rapture is out now via 20 Buck Spin.
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