I still hold the band’s debut album, Tyrannotophia, in high regard, even if the subsequent 2 EPS Dawn of Corruption and Dusk of Anguish were merely OK.  So I was curious how they would follow up on the debut, considering the huge explosion in the genre over the last couple of years and the almost mainstream hype for the genre that Lorna Shore (and others to some extent) has sparked.

Where many bands like Mental Cruelty and Bonecarver, simply mimicked Lorna Shore and added or increased orchestration, (with great results I might add) to their credit, Distant has not done that. Though they have noticeably added some keyboards and a little symphonics here and there, Distant has decided to lean even harder into the Sci-fi-, industrial elements explored in the running ‘Tyrant’ saga on their releases. What you end up with is a deathcore /downtempo band with almost Fear Factory-styled programming and elements.

At its core (pun fully intended), it’s still pure, beatdown, largely downtempo deathcore that mostly lumbers with a slower more deliberate pace and focuses on huge crumbling breakdowns. And Heritage certainly delivers plenty of that in spades, though to be honest many of the songs run a bit together and deliver almost identical pace and structure.

From the introductory opener “Acid Reign”, the sci-fi/cyber shift is immediate, and its cemented by the time the first track, “Paradigm Shift” lumbers into view, replete with robotic female narration, as it’s easy to visualize a Terminator-styled dystopian world where HK drones and t800 are stalking mankind. “Born of Blood” follows suit with a strong cyber/industrial backdrop to the heaving rumbling riffs,  as does “The Grief Manifest” and one of the album’s nastiest, heaviest tracks, “Exofilth”.

Another standout is “Ardent Justice”, a ‘Live Aid’ imbuing deathcore track that features 16 vocalists ( I’m not naming all of them, but it includes vocalists from Suicide Silence, Emmure, Bodysnatcher, Angelmaker, Cabal, Crown Magnetar and Paleface to name just some of them), and is the first track that breaks stride by having more of a bombastic symphonic/blackened deathcore vibe, as does the following solid track “The Gnostic Uprising” and later, the title track”Heritage” (which features Lorna Shore‘s Will Ramos) and “Orphan of Blight”

But from there, things start to feel a bit ‘samey’, with “A Sentence to Suffer”, “Human Scum” and “Plagebreeder” as the band settles into more of the same mid-paced, slowed-down downtempo with whirrs and beeps in the background.

My only other minor quibble is the production which is a bit ‘mushy’ for me, sapping some of the monstrous lopes of their power. This really needed that almost over-produced Josh Schroeder (Lorna Shore, Mental Cruelty, King 810 etc)-type production.

So ultimately on Heritage,  there’s nothing that blows my face up like  “Hollow Eyes” or “Heirs of Torment” from Tyrannotophia, but Heritage is still likely to be one of the year’s biggest deathcore releases.

Then the band quickly released another EP, Dusk of Anguish, which was much better, but I found myself thinking, ‘hang on a minute, I feel a third EP coming and I bet they combine all three into a full length’.  Well lo and behold, that’s what happened, and while I think its a bit crappy for the band and label to make you buy 2 EPs and then a third release that has those same 2 EPs on it and adds 7 new songs to ‘conclude the Tyrannotophia saga ‘, here I am having purchased all three.

So the first 12 songs here are the two EPs mentioned above (though ordered differently?), so if you have the 2 EPs, you are essentially paying for 7 new (rather short) songs here, including a bonus, older track added on the end, “Argent Debt”, which actually ends up being one of the best songs on the entire release. It’s all modern heavy as fuck downtempo/beatdown taken to the nth degree. And while I said the First EP was a bit dull (though “Oedipism ” is a monster track), the second one has some bangers like “Cryogenesis” and “Graveborn”, delivering unfettered down tuned, lumbering heaviness.

The new, last part of the Tyrannotophia story is 4 ‘Rituals’, (two of which are interludes) 2 songs, and the aforementioned bonus song. “Ritual II: Rakva” and “Ritual III: Vermilion Rivers” are solid, if short beasts (the latter even adding some keyboards a la Lorna Shore and label mates Mental Cruelty). “The Tyrant’s Covenant” (featuring Brand of Sacrifice’s Kyle Anderson) has a monster closeout and “Maledictus” is a short, repetitive but slower, hulking track, before the aforementioned, six-minute, “Argent Debt” ends the release with arguably the best, most varied, heaviest song the group has penned (which makes sense as it was originally written and released written shortly after the debut and during covid- and has 5 damn vocalists). The ending is downright nasty. I just hope this is more of what we can expect from future material rather than some of the so-s so material that fill this release.

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.