EP REVIEW: Strain Of Gods – Stillbirth

Everyone’s favourite gnarly German brutal surf-death-metal (if it wasn’t a thing before, it is now!) fiends STILLBIRTH have bludgeoned ear drums and split skulls from here to kingdom come since 2002. Combining a hefty mix of death metal, grindcore and deathcore, the band’s last album, the critically acclaimed Revive The Throne saw them provide their heaviest material to date, that is until the brain clobbering six tracks of Strain Of Gods arrived. The band have employed a barbaric ‘scorched earth’ policy and then some for this EP, taking no prisoners and destroying everything in its way.

The core of this record is made up of especially brutal, slamming breakdowns accompanied by body decimating grooves. The EP is organised chaos, frantic and abrasive in the best possible way. Lyrically, it follows on from Revive The Throne, in which the Gladiators of the previous album have gone on holiday, with a great thirst for rest and relaxation. However, as something apocalyptic brews in the sky, the weary warriors must fight again, except this time it is against a force of nature, violent and uncompromising.

There is a surprising amount of dynamic range despite the majority of this EP being the sonic embodiment of a demolishing bulldozer to the skull. Utilising the grooves the band ebb and flow whilst keeping an incredible energy that’s consistent and adrenaline inducing throughout. The dual bass power of Lukas Kaminski and the late Dominik König is utterly ruthless, so much so you can physically feel the crushing weight of sub-bass waves crushing your chest. 

Skinned By The Sun and You Can’t Kill Us are the best examples of this new groove centred evolution of the band, adding in tasteful, excellently crafted solos and squealing pinch harmonics before launching you into the maelstrom of blast beats and breakdowns, whilst Surfer’s Paradise and Ultimum Exitium harken back to Revive The Throne with a more deathcore tone. The strangest but most fun moment on Strain Of Gods comes halfway through the EP’s title and closing track in which the band take a quick beach sabbatical that wouldn’t sound out of place on a chilled out jazz record. This brief moment of calm is vulgarly interpreted with the most disgusting guttural provided by Lukas Swiaczny, and ultimately gets back to the unrivalled barbarity that we become accustomed to. 

Over the last few years STILLBIRTH have done everything within their power to get as heavy as humanly possible, Strain Of Gods sees them one-upping themselves yet again. This record is brutality on a whole other level, there is no stopping a band as ruthless and unforgiving as this. 

R.I.P Dominik “Pumpa” König 1987-2021

Rating: 8/10

 

Strain Of Gods is set for release on November 19th via Unique Leader Records.

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