AUROCH - Mute Books
Forty-five seconds. That's how long the creeping, ambient soundscape lasts before Auroch launch into "Billowing Vervain", the opening track on third album Mute Books. It's also the only reprieve said album will give you. This is a suffocating, near overwhelming listen in the best possible way. Every aural millimeter is filled with the best elements death metal has to offer: creeping Autopsy dread, neck-snapping Gorguts time changes and Morbid Angel guitar wizardy.
Comprising half of labelmates Mitochondrion's lineup (rounded out by the impressive drumming of Zack Chandler), the power trio format might ostensibly seem limiting to such an overpowering death metal style, but Auroch torches such notions. "Say Nothing" starts with a serpentine Nile riff and some stylish soloing before pulling the rug out and firing guttural/battle charge twin vocals, machine precision blast beats and riffs that would make Nineties Erik Rutan jealous. This isn't just a short blast, either; it's over seven minutes of ebb and flow, unnervingly virulent music that, in the end, is perversely satisfying. In some ways it fills the gaping maw left by the dissolution of yet another excellent Profound Lore alumni, Coffinworm.
Not all of Mute Books dwells in the crypts. "The Keeping" kicks off with an unmistakable Kataklysm-like groove before delivering its gut shots of sludged-up death, while "Her Bidding" channels some Seasons In The Abyss until it too gives way to an inevitable, grimy Autopsy/Abscess end. Even with a bar set quite high with distinctive previous full-lengths From Forgotten Worlds and Taman Shud, and in the face of an ever-increasing death metal pool from which to choose bands and releases, Auroch is sticking to what they do best and doing it better than most.
Mute Books will be available October 21 from Profound Lore Records.
