EP REVIEW: Cavern Of Inoculated Cognition – Spinebreaker
It’s not always the done thing to start with a roll call but here it’s hard not to; featuring members of GULCH, SUNAMI, RIPPED TO SHREDS and DEAD HEAT, San Jose death metallers SPINEBREAKER have the odds stacked in their favour before many listeners will have even heard a note. The six-piece actually predate any of the bands mentioned though; they released their excellent debut full-length Ice Grave back in 2016, dealing in a kind of hardcore-influenced old school death metal fury way before that sound became all the rage as it has done over the past few years. A promo tape followed in 2019, and now couldn’t be a better time for the band to make a more fulsome return with the vicious Cavern Of Inoculated Cognition EP.
Firstly, as far as EPs go, it’s worth noting that SPINEBREAKER haven’t skimped here. With six tracks spanning 25 minutes there is more than enough for listeners to get their teeth into, especially when you consider that plenty of others would add a couple of minutes to this and quite happily call it an LP. As for what’s on the menu, more than anything else SPINEBREAKER are one of those proper riffy death metal bands; of course they can do the blasty stuff, and they can definitely do the doomy stuff, but they seem to be happiest of all when they’ve settled into a thick headbanging groove as their triple guitar attack crushes in unison.
Ultimately this makes for a deeply satisfying and compelling experience, even if it is one that will feel very familiar to anyone who’s been on the death metal train for any length of time. Tracks like Bone Riddling Necrosis and Spectral Forge don’t even consider reinventing the wheel, but when they groove as hard as they do no-one is really asking them to. Those two present something of a pair of highlights right at the heart of the record, the former venturing into a real doomic heft at points, and the latter twisting itself into more of a proggy wind in its second half. But if they are the peaks it’s only by a hair or so; everything on Cavern Of Inoculated Cognition – even the minute and a half instrumental of Inoculated – carries the same thunderous power that makes this a thoroughly well-rounded bruising.
We could dig further into specifics, but chances are you’ve figured this one out already. Riff-heavy old school death metal; there may be plenty of it around at the moment but when it’s done well – as it certainly is here – there isn’t a thrill quite like it. Cavern Of Inoculated Cognition doesn’t outstay its welcome, it has a great old school sound thanks to producer Greg Wilkinson, and it’ll fit right in somewhere alongside the likes of UNDEATH, FROZEN SOUL, CELESTIAL SANCTUARY and GATECREEPER as one of those records that proves death metal really did have its form nailed pretty much from the very beginning.
Rating: 8/10
Cavern Of Inoculated Cognition is set for release on May 5th via Creator-Destructor Records.
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