ALBUM REVIEW: Mortualis – Concrete

Within hardcore, there’s degrees of darkness. Perhaps most well known are bands like HATEBREED, who’s lyrical content is perfect for pumping yourself up, for making you feel like you can take on the world and come out victorious…and then there’s bands like CONCRETE. Veterans of the famous New York hardcore scene, the band have toiled and plugged their way around the underground for years.

With their brand of extremity identified by a scathing, intimidating nihilistic worldview and an almost grind-esque sound, their last record, Free Us From Existence was as cheerful as the title suggests. Perhaps missed by some due to it’s release during the COVID months, it was an utterly brilliant if bludgeoning blast of white hot rage and contained some of the most punishing heavy moments of the year, musically and lyrically.

From the band’s inception, the main goal of the band seems to have been to stretch and warp hardcore into its most devastating form, taking influence from DYING FETUS and CANNIBAL CORPSE to name a few. The blend has been developed over time and judging from the sound of this release, Mortualis, CONCRETE have honed it down to its most dangerous form, though at a cost of being less memorable than their previous effort.

The aural equivalent of a hurricane filled with razorblades and rusty nails, Illusion Of God grabs you by the throat and never let’s go from the off. One of the band’s biggest weapons in their arsenal is that despite sounding like a man who would happily beat you to death infront of your loved ones with a sack of broken pool balls, vocalist Lenny Fletcher has great annunciation, which makes his apocalyptic declarations even more potent. Still sounding menacing and striking with his proclamations of destruction and the end of all things over machine gun guitars and violence inducing guitars, it’s a frankly devastating mix yet one that’s balanced well.

Omnia Occide contains some of the record’s most furious moments, opening with a bewildering bit of drums and leading up to a teeth shattering breakdown, while Cold Angels grabs your brain and throws it all over the place with a bewildering opening that rarely lets up. Plenty of moments on here combine the danceable mosh-worthy hardcore of bands like AGNOSTIC FRONT with heavier, more headbanging moments of bedfellows like SUFFOCATION, albeit less technical.

From kaiju-esque stomps to 100mph blasts of pure hate, there’s enough variation in the album to keep things relatively interesting, even if the overall listening experience can begin to grind you down after a while. Some songs can feel like they go on for a bit too long. The album’s highs, while scorching, fail to reach the heights of their previous effort and there’s few moments that will lodge themselves into your memory. If you need that DYING FETUS itch scratched this will more than suffice but at the back of your mind you’ll know that nothing can replace the real thing.

Rating: 7/10

Mortualis is out now via Upstate Records.

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