Review of Machiavellian - The Impossibility of Death in the Minds of the Living

Another band out of the recent UK deathcore/death metal scene (Ingested, Annotations of an Autopsy, etc), Machiavellian’s debut 4 song EP, though on the short side offers up 23 minutes of pretty solid and at times sludge laced deathcore that shows a little promise.

Though only 4 songs, one of the songs is over 6 minutes (“Bone Island”) and one is over 8 minutes (“Marxism”, and those two songs are the EPs best as they break from the other two tracks (“Ranger”, “Let My Home be My Gallows”) pretty standard, rumbling blast, growl  The Red Chord-ish throes of modern metal. “Marxism” starts out normal enough, but two minute in it develops a sludgy almost stoner doom track with a hefty menacing groove.  Then “Marxism” starts with a lazy, bluesy bass run before unfolding a hazy doom riff that could be old Anathema or My Dying Bride. Even when song does revert back to a more death metal/deathcore pace, its still has a loping, muddy sneer that’s a bit different to many of their polished pseudo death metal peers. However, it ends with a killer sludge rumble befitting Birds of Prey or The Abominable Iron Sloth.

Top things off with the fact the band can rough it up with the best of them, as shown in, “Let My Home be My Gallows”, and you have a modern UK band that nicely balances the popular trend over there right now but adds a bit of character that shows some promise for a future full length.