ALBUM REVIEW: Malevolent Thoughts Of A Hastened Extinction – Cognitive
Just over a decade ago, New Jersey felt the wrath of technical death metal band COGNITIVE being born. Their brutality, technical expertise, and the dirty grooves over the years have obliterated everything in their way, and summoned chaos across the world. Having earned a flawless reputation for their explosive live sets with the likes of FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY, RIVERS OF NIHIL, VULVODYNIA, LORNA SHORE and more, alongside appearances at festivals such as Maryland Deathfest, they’ve now pressed paused for a moment on a touring force to release their fourth studio album, Malevolent Thoughts Of A Hastened Extinction.
Opening the album, Eniac offers little preparation for the gut punch that is thrown. There’s underlying grooves in the sound, but above all, there’s a fresh sound of ferocity and a need for more destruction than ever before. The Maw sets the example of the sheer force COGNITIVE are going for with their sound, as it is, with all of its disgusting riffs and AJ Viana‘s ability to hammer down some truly technical drumming, possibly one of the band’s most relentless tracks ever.
Despite the most ferocious title being taken, the album doesn’t fall subpar and continues delivering crushing riffs, and despite the technicality that has evidently gone into the writing process, nothing feels formulated. Tracks such as Arterial Red, Oroborous and To Feed The Worms are examples of how well the band have maintained their dynamic, yet still orchestrating new skills and technical abilities within each effort. It should be particularly mentioned how the melodic leads pin down the aggression just as tight as every other element. To Feed The Worms, again, is a fantastic moment where just for that melodic solo, you’re granted a moment to breathe, but the fury in each note still leaves that painful smack in the face.
The grooves that COGNITIVE seem to put in alongside everything also needs to be mentioned. Death metal can often fall a little bland, the same repetitive riffs, the same guttural vocals, the incessant need to keep everything fast and as brutal as possible. This is where the five-piece show that the genre can still remain exciting in a scene where everything is constantly being upped. Destitute highlights this well, the undertones of the grooves alongside the clean vocals of Shane Jost, who admittedly has been a force to be reckoned with all throughout the album, adds an familiar uncomfortable melancholy that is undoubtedly addictive.
Malevolent Thoughts Of A Hastened Extinction isn’t an album that is ground breaking, considering the competition that technical death metal has going on right now, but it certainly is a reminder why COGNITIVE have rightfully earned their title in the scene. If there’s a light side to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that it put a stop to COGNITIVE touring and turned their attention to completing an album that will become a staple in their career and show that they have bided their time, refining their skills, applying their knowledge and remaining a band that is important to the growth of the tech-death scene. Malevolent Thoughts Of A Hastened Extinction is a force to be reckoned with, articulate, well-refined and yet still brimming with brutality and disgusting as hell.
Rating: 8/10
Malevolent Thoughts Of A Hastened Extinction is out now via Unique Leader Records.
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