I’m starting to feel like metal websites need to have this image on their site:
The UK’s Ingested was the latest in a concerning, long, and consistent run of deathcore vocalists being douche-y, with Josh Davies, who replaced original vocalist and co-founder Jason Evans in 2024, being promptly removed from the band after barely 2 years for the allegations of …now stop me if you’ve heard this before….being a shitty human being. I hope I’m not denigrating him with that statement.
Unfortunately, the new album Denigration had been recorded, but the band decided to redo the vocals and replace Davies with new guitarist Andrew Viruetta, and OG guitarist Sean Hynes co-handling the vocal duties for the re-recording. Honestly though – I mean, it’s deathcore vocals; they have all the deep growls bellows and screams that are now required for the genre, and they both do pretty well. I doubt anyone can really tell.
Musically, Ingested seems to have mirrored Whitechapel’s more introspective forays (The Valley, Kin) with the last couple of albums, especially 2022’s Ashes Lie Still. But as with Whitechapel’s last opus, Hymns in Dissonance, Ingested has returned with arguably one of the more brutal and direct albums of their career, imbuing the likes of Level Above Human and Where Only Gods May Tread with simple, bludgeoning, breakdown-heavy deathcore.
The focus on Denigration is massive, almost down-tempo lopes and lurches, and boy, do they deliver. The Nicolo Beninato (Worm Shepherd, Art of Attrition, Hate Within, Immortal Disfigurement) production is absolutely devastating from opener “Dragged Apart” to closer “Cold Sun”.
Every single song here punches you in the fucking face. And while there are blast beats scattered around (i.e., “Beaten Beyond the Veil”, “Dredge The Dark”, “Cold Sun”). But like say, the last Signs of the Swarm album, they are just transitions until the next lumbering, grooving breakdown as heard on the huge opener “Dragged Apart”, “Watch You Fold”, standouts “Stitch by Stitch” and “Steel Toe Truth”, stammering “We Are All Inherently Evil”, and lumbering “Oaths Betrayed”. Don’t get me wrong, the pummeling gait is pretty similar throughout, but it’s oh so satisfying. And there are no ‘personal’ or introspective moments that Evans introduced on the last two albums, which were fine by me. This is just bruising, hateful, shoulder bobbing heft.
As is the norm nowadays, there is a host of guest vocalists from Skyler Conder of Cell, John Gallagher of Dying Fetus, Kyle Medina of Brand of Sacrifice, and PeelingFlesh‘s Damonteal Harris. But picking them out or the bits they do, don’t really jump out or add much to the burly, bludgeoning material.
In a slow year for killer, big-name deathcore, Denigration is going to be one of the top deathcore releases of the year, and kudos to the band for doing the right thing.
