Second full length album by Ohio based VENOMOUS ECHOES, “Split Formations and Infinite Mania” picks up where the previous “Writhing Tomb Amongst The Stars” left off and continues to explore cosmic horror territories in which Lovecraft’s terrifying ultra-dimensional visions seem to merge with David Cronenberg’s disturbing body-horror.
Once again the concept of VENOMOUS ECHOES, a project by the solo multi-instrumentalist Ben Vanweelden, focuses on his own body dysmorphia and the psychological implications. The body is a prison, a space tomb that is both a place of torture and a portal to other dimensions, as sinister and unsettling as 0ndes’ cover drawing. Dismemberment, decomposition and recomposition are like alchemical phases in a grotesque process of metamorphosis that is carried out through very violent songs, which shorten the stylistic distance between MORBID ANGEL at their most brutal and PORTAL’s uncontrollable chaos.
Vanweelden is the author of an intense vocal performance, alternating beastly shrieks and deep growls, and more than once his vocal cords seem on the verge of breaking in a liberating cry. On the contrary, the strings of his guitar mercilessly writhe in the air like flaying whips, ringing oblique and dissonant riffs hurled against furious rhythms that occasionally plunge into death-doom abysses.
Rarely has a death metal album reached such high emotional heights, translating an intimate and personal experience into an universal cosmic horror apocalypse.
Incl. Bandcamp Digital Download and Streaming
FFO: Morbid Angel, Ulthar, Howls Of Ebb, Portal, Esoctrilihum