The last album (well, actually an EP, as it was just barely 20 minutes long) Believe And Die from this German band was gnarly enough, a vicious sonic beatdown of dissonant sludgecore that sounded all the more feral with the seriously pissed, choking screams of singer Ajka. She's a contender for one of the sickest sludge singers, for sure. Their music is no joke either, sinister, heavy-duty sludgemetal with grinding angular riffs and lots of awesome loops/samples/electronics incoporated into their sound. Well, it's been five years since Believe And Die came out, and I figured that the band had broken up or something during this time, but here they are, back with their first actual full length (this time released on Vendetta, the German label behind Salome and B.SON), and holy fuck is this killer! Five songs, short and sweet at thirty minutes total, and Insuiciety are as heavy and punishing as ever. The first song "In Circles" kicks off with a massive burly Sabbathoid riff, super downtuned and crushing, backed up by pounding, complex drumming before shifting into a huge droning riff that wouldn't have sounded all that out of place on Isis's Mosquito Control. Ajka sounds even more spiteful and murderous than before, howling like a fucking psychotic over the churning swamp boogie and pounding tribal dirge. "Simple Story" is all lurching angular dirge and discordant chords, then surprises you with ambient textures and what sound like choral voices swelling up in the background, and the last two minutes of the song changes into a hypnotic dronescape with chugging guitars and pounding drums looped into an endless lock groove while smears of backwards electronic melody drift over top. Wow. The other three songs are just as crushing, devestating sludge riffs pulverizing you before dissolving into pure black feedback, or slowing down even further into punishing doom crawls, subsonic frequencies coursing everywhere, pummeling tribal rhythms and sampled vocals, Southern metal swagger and garbled psychedelic noise. So fucking great! Like Damad? Like Souls At Zero era Neurosis? Like Buzzoven and Eyehategod? Essential!! Killer packaging too: the disc comes in a glossy wallet printed with the lyrics and liners, which fits inside of another thick, glossy foldout gatefold sleeve.
Comfortably filed away in the cobwebbed vaults of my brain as a sort of middling crust band that happen to really dig Neurosis, I'm suddenly having to reassess Insuiciety because this new album is all sorts of great. Straight from the off, I was floored by totally righteous, fist-pumping stoner riffs, surprisingly bluesy in their approach, with a warmer sound selected rather than the usual blast of numbing, overly harsh distortion. The general air of depression in the minor chord progressions and the female singer's tastefully implemented yelling add a dark hardcore vibe to proceedings, which makes for an unusual but not unwelcome mix. With five fairly lengthy tracks, it's doesn't outstay its welcome either. Think Kylesa, only far more crunchily satisfying.