ninehertz

Whilst trawling bandcamp for a nasty sludge fix I happened across Nugreth, from New Hampshire, and whilst my sludgey-senses had failed me and had place me in a different genre altogether, I suddenly became transfixed nonetheless.

In the main, this is death metal from the weirdest, unhinged fringes. Vocals are often insane ramblings, cosmic vortex guitars fly past, through unimaginable turns, and out the black hole at the other side, often becoming so folded and twisted to become an alien form of goregrind – squeaking vocals and all – by its end.

It is tech-death and grindcore of the weirdo schools, jumpy, jittery and overpoweringly heavy. The gonzo synths of V-3 Sewer Creeper create an evil carnival vibe, before the edges begin to fray and the death metal starts to lose grip on its own sanity. The album whole is the death metal to Howls of Ebb or Khthoniik Cerviiks’ black, extreme metal twisted, dissolved and rehydrated, never returning to its original, recognisable form.

It is, perversely, a lot of fun. Nugreth have a manic inventiveness at their core which results in every single minute of this self-titled release being fascinating and pulsating.