Down tempo (or lazy eyed deathcore as I lovingly call it), is one of my guilty pleasures. It takes the best part of deathcore, the breakdowns, and beats them to death repeatedly for an entire album with little or no deviation. If bands like Black Tongue, Calmed By the Tides of Rain, Traitors, Falsifier and such get you going then the debut from The Netherlands’s Distant will be a must have.

There’s little else to explain if you enjoy the genre simplistic offerings. 36 minutes of utterly bludgeoning, down tuned (Producer/ Mixer Nouri Yetgin is one to watch out for it appears) ,mid tempo, deathcore on barbiturates. It’s slow breakdowns essentially played over and over again with some super deep processed/layered growls over the top, the occasional blast and shriek and not much else.

But when it hits, it hits hard and instantly gets my blood pressure up and I want to fight. This is perfect gym music, perfect get ready to go into the ring music or anything you need to get ready to destroy stuff. The likes of “Hollow Eyes”, “Heirs of Torment” (featuring Lucca Schmerler of labelmates Mental Cruelty), “Endgame” and closing crushing cover of Slovakian deathcore band Shrill Whispers’ song ‘ “Inside Out” are just simple, horrendously heavy beat-downs, that will punish your ears and your speakers. Your intellect…..not so much.  A few short atmospheric bits break or introduce a couple of the tracks  (“False Gods”, Chasm of Despair”), but its pretty piecemeal.

Unique leader is having a monstrous summer with this, Osiah, Brand of Silence, Organectomy and the much awaited Disentomb all out this month. This isn’t the best of the bunch bunch or sure might be the beefiest.

[Visit the band's website]

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