Schism Perpetration

The debut full length album from blackened death metal titans Antichrist Siege Machine is here, following a couple of demos and an EP, suffice to say I think things are about to get pretty intense.

The eerie sampling of the beginning brings in the unsettling vibes of the album while utilising a minimalist style to let the imagination go to work. Feedback soon draws us into things with doomy grooving riffs following suit. Immediately the punishing grind of the band is reminiscent of Revenge, which is certainly not a complaint from me, as they thunder out bestial riffing, maniacal blasts and morbid vocals in an onslaught of hellfire that stomps and secretes such unholy noise with a magnificently chaotic feeling to it. While the production is certainly raw, it is actually rather clear so you do not miss out on any of the defiling devastation the band throws at you. There is a meaty savagery to the butchering guitar work perfectly suited to the absolutely insane skills of the drummer, backing up a ferocious barrage of intimidating vocal work. Throwing in the bombarding songwriting style of Conqueror with some slower brutish sections akin to Archgoat, this is a war metal fans ideal blend of putrid thuggishness and scolding aggression, certainly something that demands ones attention.

A blasphemous affair from start to end, this thing has infinite momentum but within that there is a surprisingly (at least for war metal) well varied blend of tempo and ideas that really accentuates how damn hard this thing hits. We are given some brief shredding mania that completes the sadistically unhinging sound of the genre while the rhythm sections are clearly the main show with their brilliantly stampeding blastbeats and riffing that seem to never falter in energy, much like the ripping gutturals of the vocalist. While it may not be as relentless as Infernal Coil or as out-there as Cult Of Extinction, these guys have found their balance and their sound, it is a consistent one that is punishingly malicious.

In just under half of an hour ASM dominate, obliterate and devastate you with old school black-death warfare of excellent quality. This is a fantastic debut full length and I expect mighty future releases.

Written for www.nattskog.wordpress.com

Beside the new Profane Order record Krucyator have put out another highlight from the black/death/war metal sub-genre. US bastards Antichrist Siege Machine (or ASM) have been formed in 2016, and after some demos and EPs they have released their full length debut not too long ago. This one has been titled “Schism Perpetration” and is a crushing and ugly piece of dissonant and devastating metal.

A perfect juxtaposition of the chaotic and the calm, the found and the created, the constant and moving – this is what ASM are offering here. Analog noises have been laid over a heavily distorted base of black/death metal chords. It feels a bit like witnessing an uncomfortable act from behind a thick panel of glass. Deep and cavernous vocals are part of the music, somehow swallowed by a plane of noise and some rapidly pulsating beats, but building a bleak and unsettling affair together with desolate and repetitive rhythms.

This release pays tribute to the school of classic war metal, which fuses death metal with black metal aesthetics and consciously sacrifices tightness and controlled playing to be able to unleash the highest possible level of animalistic rage and fury. Compared to their previous release this one might have a partially thicker, more appropriate sound. That being said it is still fuzzy and disturbing as hell. It's still impossible to clearly make out everything that's going on, especially during your first few encounters.

The slower sections have also been improved, and they fiercely beat the listener into submission in a totally barbaric way. There aren't many such sections, but they manage to give the total chaos that manifests itself. Finally, the sparse but well-placed vocal contributions add extra hooks and textures while providing the perfect contrast to the almost unbearably hysterical and overdriven wail. Somewhere behind the mesmerizing sonic chaos there are some nice song structures, but it will take some patience to discover them in full. Some of the groovier sections remind of what is tagged as “cavern core” these days, making this release also interesting for fans of old Incantation or Autopsy records.

The production is dirty, raw and bizarre. All amplifiers have been put to the maximum to produce as much distortion as possible. Fans of a more traditional approach to extreme metal might need to look somewhere else. This release has a very own fascination so if you look behind the noise you might find yourself coming back to “Schism Perpetration” to get another dose of obscure soundscapes. Although it sounds like the apocalypse pressed on CD.

Undulating growls and wailing feedback act as a sinister fog that’d thicken with ionic charge as the Antichrist Siege Machine would advance. Death metallic riffs serve to intensify the egress through the gates of the damned unto a storm upon the pious. Grey fists and rusted red blades offer havoc and blood– shredding flaxen hair and white-feathered wing from the most pure. Impossible oscillations of blackened sky and grey fuming death reign permanent the bleakest future for the kingdom of the unjust skies. War eternal rages within the most incurable man-made delusions, lives lived without the nuance of grey within their contrast addicted eyes, and there an existence of extremes can only benefit the gods of death, the opportunist, and the invisibly callous puppeteer. True strength lies within the godless, those who are their own anti-spiritual enforcers, waging war against the true evil that is the Christ and his churches infinite list of crimes perpetuated in his name. Created for the purpose of the damnation of all theocratic rule and in defiance of the falsely pious mutilators of mankind this Antichrist Siege Machine blows far beyond its own goals with ‘Schism Perpetration’, and begins to obliterate anything remotely touched by the stink of holiness, innocent or not. It is a ruthless battery of war metallic grooves and growls worth following, a tempest of death aimed at exactly the right target for satisfying half hour pulse of hallucinatory rage.

If the loud, abrasive sheet metal scraping clangor of ‘Morbid Triumph’ (2017) EP was an unblessing upon your ears that’d set up expectations for this 2019 debut temper that abrasion down but take note of the sustained pace, groove, and attack. Arthur Rizk/Bob Quirk‘s treatment of that first EP aimed for a sound that gnashed and clawed at the listener in the loudest way possible, it was riff-forward and didn’t allow for layers of fear and torment to sink in. For ‘Schism Perpetration’ Antichrist Siege Machine tasks Quirk with handling the engineering, mix and mastering process himself which finds their sound moving away from the loud beatings of Caveman Cult and early Diocletian towards the ruthless but dynamic wavelength of compatriots like Abysmal Lord or even Impure, both of whom also employ a heavy dose of death metal groove within their hateful blackened grinding.

Where does the Richmond, Virginia duo differentiate from their peers? Even a quick spin through drummer Scott Bartley (Left Cross, Unsacred) and guitarist/vocalist Ryan Zell (Disevered, ex-Cellgraft) show a foundation rooted in raw death metal, extreme crust, and grindcore all of which inform the impactful skeleton of Antichrist Siege Machine‘s war metallic exterior. If nothing else they’ve managed fantastic syncopation from a performance perspective while pulling the best ideas from shared interests into an ultimately very exciting nine-headed beast on ‘Schism Perpetration’. Ringing feedback, staccato growls drenched in reverb, propulsive death metal riffs, and ‘evolved’ caveman drumming definitely create a distinct enough sound for Antichrist Siege Machine though it only places them beside leaders like Diocletian, Abysmal Lord and Heresiarch not yet beyond them. This is still a remarkable feat for a debut full length and it’d seem they’ve reached this point with a high level of taste in mind.

The criteria I’d use in approach of a war metal album in 2019 does eventually boil down to how memorable the full listen is after five or six full spins versus ten– So, with style notes, all the the right heaviness, and dynamic songwriting in tow the bottom line is that you’re likely only going to dig into this records spastic nuances if you’re already a big fan of black/death metal of the war metal ilk. Though ‘Schism Perpetration’ does lean into the Proclamation and Archgoat side of riffing that’d helped me get into the sub-genre from a death metal attuned perspective it will be the moments of sheer brutality that stand out first for the casual listener. Moderately high recommendation. For preview purposes I’d suggest “Cleaved From Flesh” is the most archetypal example of what Antichrist Siege Machine do right on this record and the pairing of “Hell Fire Reign” with “Numbing Decay” offers up my personal favorite moment on the record where the brutality of the pieces escalate and recede in most satisfying waves.

Attribution: https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/09/02/antichrist-siege-machine-schism-perpetration-2019-review/