ALBUM REVIEW: Unending Futility – Live Burial

LIVE BURIAL are one of the more impressive death metal acts in the UK at the moment. Already established as an impressive live act, it wasn’t until the release of their excellent debut album, 2016’s Forced Back to Life, the Newcastle quintet really cemented themselves as a band to watch. Their latest album, Unending Futility comes close to four years since the release of their debut, but showcases a band that have refined their sound even further, trimming what little fat there was in their sound and leaving only lean, caustic death metal.

Seeping into the Earth starts Unending Futility off with a bleak and visceral slab of crushing death metal. It’s got one foot firmly rooted in an old school sound, with bellicose vocals, dense guitar lines and punishing drumming providing a song that shifts between a bleak, funereal pace and a much more speed driven, cacophonous one. Condemned to the Boats is another thick, aggressive slab of death metal with some killer rhythms and monstrous vocals, which both give this album an incredibly intense and robust sound. With the music sliding between tight, focused moments and far more chaotic ones, this is a song that stands out as one of the earliest highlights of the record.

Swing of the Pendulum makes full use of slicker, melody driven guitars, making for a sharper sound that still maintains plenty of the weighty rhythms and feral hooks that first two songs. The vocals, likewise, have a rabid sense of urgency to them, which lends itself to the aggression of the music really well. This is also the first time that the bass begins to come to the fore properly on Unending Futility, which adds even more depth to an already robust and monolithic sound. The Crypt of Slumbering Madness is an extremely morose affair, with soaring lead melodies adding a slick, epic quality to the sound. Thunderous drums and acerbic vocals carve through the mix, adding a meaty edge to this track. There are moments where the music heads back towards a much more death/doom sound that’s evocative of LIVE BURIAL‘s earlier work.

Rotting on the Rope, an incredibly grotesque piece of death metal with grating guitars, dominant drum sections and hellish vocals, possesses a much more focused and jarring sound, with the music once again ebbing and flowing between different elements of the death metal sound with ease giving this whole song an eclectic sound. It’s absolutely saturated with riffs too, which goes a long way to keeping this song interesting all the way through. Winds of Solace, with its bubbling, sludgy bass parts, eerie acoustic passages and subtle percussive elements, acts as a brief interlude, providing a completely different sound and setting up the final track, Cemetery Fog, extremely well. This last track alternates between slow, atmospheric passages and razor sharp, macabre death metal ferocity, giving this lengthy piece of music a great sound. Tight guitar hooks, prominent bass lines and hellish, acidic vocals give this a great and varied sound, making for an excellent and engrossing end to an amazing record.

Unending Futility is a massive step up from Forced Back to Life, and it’s clear that the band have improved significantly as songwriters. All of the music on this record is eclectic and much sharper than their earlier output, crafting what is arguably their best material to date. The sharper production and massive sound really aid this album as well, turning these already brilliant tracks into huge, monstrous juggernauts. This is one of the more impressive death metal albums by a UK act to have come out in the last few years, and it really could see LIVE BURIAL go on to be regarded as one of the best death metal acts active right now.

Rating: 9/10

Unending Futility is out now via Transcending Obscurity. 

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