Hideous Divinity has been on a blazing trajectory in their recent career, culminating in the excellent Simulacrum. My former list buddy Ferrous, whose disappearance requires no police investigation I assure you, was rather enthused by that record, and it was one of the few overlapping entries on both our listicles that year.1 The Italians have earned their pedigree through battering brutality anchored to semi-progressive song structures and rendered with tight technical wizardry. No wonder that expectations are high for Unextinct, especially when it arrives clad in a beautiful, disturbing and unusually nautical Adam Burke cover. Can the formation live up to the crushing weight of expectation?
I rarely go for brutality. Simulacrum had enough groove to keep me hooked, but going into this review I did feel some apprehension that a further shift to the extreme might put the intensity of the music beyond my enjoyment. That fear was not unfounded, as Unextinct is dense, complex and offers little respite in its intense assault. The longer tracks like “The Numinous One,” “Atto Quarto The Horror Paradox” and closer “Leben Ohne Feuer” will occasionally take the foot off the pedal, letting some keyboards seep in to create atmosphere. But even these tempo changes occur sudden enough to slam your face into the dashboard, and while you’re still busy setting your broken nose the track takes off again fast enough for a lethal case of whiplash. The compositions have likewise grown more obtuse, and it takes a long time before any of the tracks begin to feel familiar as riffs and solos jump up, pummel you around and disappear again, leaving little else to hold on to.
That’s not to say I don’t enjoy it, though. The musicianship on Unextinct is phenomenal. The drums, courtesy of guest musician Davide Itri, is given to blasting, but not in a mindless fashion; precise, technical and absolutely brutal, it underlines and elevates the relentless ferocity of Unextinct. While many death metal bands bury the bass, here it’s a bona fide member of the band, and some of the best bits of the record occur as it twangs alongside the insane riffs, like the ascending multi-part riff at the end of “Atto Quarto” or the noodly breaks in the bludgeoning “Quasi-Sentient.” The feeling of getting a grip on one of these songs is akin to finishing a difficult video game boss, the reward being a good headbanging (one of my first victories being “Against the Sovereignty of Mankind”). And the closer is especially strong, its pacing thoughtful but ramping up towards a big battering finale.
But the journey to get to that point of understanding and vibing with the music is arduous, and the main cause is the production. Hideous Divinity has always brickwalled their production, and it was the main point of contention for Simulacrum as well. Whereas that record was saved somewhat by a good mix, Unextinct fairs worse. The only redeeming factor is a prominent bass. That is mainly so because everything else is prominent, too. Listening to Unextinct is like a five-army war in a broom closet. It’s cramped and it’s flat so the disorientation and fatigue come on quick, especially at higher volumes. I had severe trouble reviewing this until I listened to it on speakers and not too loud. And as much as it pains me, I can’t say that advice not to play it too loud counts as a rousing endorsement of death metal.
I really wanted to like Unextinct more. On the surface it’s not terribly different from the predecessor that I enjoyed so much. Even as the record tosses me about, I can recognize how every track has its own identity, and the stellar musicianship behind it. As such, I could forgive Hideous Divinity its dense, opaque songwriting, were it not for the production and how the two conflate to create an album I simply find difficult to fully embrace. I surmise that staunch death-heads will get much more out of Unextinct than I did. Especially if they truly don’t give a damn about production that’s worth a damn.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 4 (with a DR9 interlude) | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Website: facebook.com/hideousdivinity
Releases Worldwide: March 22nd, 2024
