ALBUM REVIEW: Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation – Languish
A lot of extreme music today is bleak. Whether it’s a sign of the times and indicative of the general consensus of the state of the world is not up for this writer to conclusively declare, but the sheer volume of bands and artists travelling this bleak road cannot merely be coincidence. And amidst all the bleakness, a deathgrind band called LANGUISH releasing an album called Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation bearing the image of a skeleton riding a horse (that is also in skeleton form) while holding aloft another skeleton, is about as bleak as they come.
There may be some readers now who are already aware of LANGUISH as a grindcore band out of Tucson, Arizona. But on this, their third full-length album, the quartet have roped in the grit of death metal to really hammer home their message of contempt and disgust at the state of the world. Inspired by the socialist anthems of Woody Guthrie and packed into a scathing and venomous 25 minutes, Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation becomes a full blown berserker taking aim at billionaires, landlords and megacorps. And these aren’t messages subtly woven in – you won’t need to have studied the intricacies of the human language to decipher their intent. The proof is right there in the track list with song titles such as Parasite, Corporate Dystopia and album highlight Failed State. This is all out verbal warfare and a rallying cry to the masses to rise up and fight back against a system that is preying on the downtrodden and marginalised.
And yet, through all that fury and bitterness, Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation is a record of hope and togetherness. Granted, death metal infused with grindcore isn’t your usual medium for bringing people together, but it does harbour the immediacy and vitriol that victims of class warfare and inequality should be feeling with every fibre of their being. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE said ‘Anger is a gift’. LANGUISH is the embodiment of that motto for 2022, as they display on the likes of Manifesto, which barrels out of the gate at maximum velocity; and Feeding The Flames which chugs and churns ferociously, but all for the greater good. When LANGUISH zero in on their beastly best, they are capable of whipping you up into a fire-spitting frenzy.
On a personnel level, vocalist Sean Mears cuts an eruptive and malevolent figure, his roars felt in the pit of your soul even with the vocals as far back in the mix as they are; Zach Hansen on “drums/noise” brings militant precision and rains down terrible vengeance across every track; the bass of Ryan Bram is teeming with as much groove as it is hostility; and the shredding guitars are brought to vivid and volatile life by Matthew Mutterperl. The sum of these parts makes for a dizzying experience that leaves you feeling as if you’ve been beaten by a troop of silverback gorillas.
On Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation, LANGUISH have delivered a manifesto that is far more digestible and palatable than any authoritative party has done in a long time. Bitesize chunks of rock solid deathgrind that can mobilise and invigorate an audience that is fed up with the state of the world. The change of genre suits LANGUISH remarkably well and has been done seamlessly – like a very natural progression for the band. Now, where do we sign up for the revolution?
Rating: 7/10
Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation is set for release on October 7th via Prosthetic Records.
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