I’ll confidently put Binah’s debut Hallucinating in Resurrecture as one of the best albums in the Swedish death metal revival of the last 10-15 years, up there with the likes of Entrails’ first few efforts, Disfuneral, Abscession, Necrom, Horrendous, and Demonical’s albums, and a slew of others. However, the follow-up, Phobiate, must not have resonated with me, as I never reviewed it, nor did it make my 2018 year-end list.

But 7 years after Phobiate and apparently riddled with a 3 years of recording/production issues, the UK duo is back with their third album, Ónkos (tumor or lump?), and they have leaned even further into the murkier, doomier side of their sound that has been present on prior efforts but fully dialed in here as the 43 minute album is only 2, 20+ minute songs, “Mount Morphine” and “The Ever Aftermath”.

There is still a massive HM2 buzz in the guitar tone, but it mostly sounds like a 45rpm single being played at 33rpm. At times, it’s truly devastating, especially when the band delivers the slower, doomier riffs, which are littered in both tracks as well as standard Swe-death canters, short-lived blasts, and even some subtle keyboards and discordant black-ish metal moments.

But it’s the slower, lumbering moments within the two tracks that get my attention. I mean, the last third of “Mount Morphine” (minus the atmospheric final few moments) is simply crushing, and the middle of “The Ever Aftermath” is the same. That all said, everything else is just ‘there’, the canters, blasts, and atmospherics don’t really stick with me or make the 2 songs particularly impactful or memorable. And there are several minutes of wasted music that’s just ‘atmosphere’, which are fine if they work to make the entire song better, not just to end the song with a couple of minutes of mood.

Ultimately, I came away a bit let down by Ónkos, bored at times, even, especially considering the 7-year wait, and all we got were 2 songs and maybe about 30 minutes of real music. But it does have some moments buried away in there. That said, I’m giving the debut from Japan’s Heteropsy, a lot more attention, and it’s a very similar style and sound.

[Visit the band's website]

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