Australia’s metal scene has no shortage of titanic acts contained within its shores, and their collective death metal lineage speaks for itself. Those familiar with the scene may recognize names such as Snorlax and Resin Tomb, or perhaps others such as Shackles, Descent, Siberian Hell Sounds and Idle Ruin if you’re more intimately familiar.
It should also be no surprise that the scene can be somewhat incestuous, and teasing out these tangled webs of shared band members and myriad projects can be a task. But here’s what matters and what gathers us here today: members of the aforementioned acts have come together for Feculent, whose debut album The Grotesque Arena sees light of day later this month. We’re pleased to present a new track from the effort, appropriately titled, “Weaponisation of the Amygdala: Endless Warfare.” You can stream the track below.
The track glides effortlessly between an onslaught of enveloping chord progressions a la Ulcerate and disgusting OSDM grooves, painting Feculent as would-be masters of contemporary death metal.
Drummer Brendan Auld elaborates on their versatile approach on a breakdown of the track’s writing process:
“Lyrically it’s about group polarisation and having our worst impulses and instincts used against us by other entities. Musically, a lot of the riff inspirations came from Morbid Angel & Artificial Brain. The first 2 riffs were all we started with and the rest was writing in the room together jamming out ideas and following our instincts for death metal. Rhythmically, I just wanted to play the most pummelling groove driven blast beats I could without having to rely on any skank beats to bridge the fast bits.”
If you like what you hear, another track, “Host Consumed,” can also be streamed via the Bandcamp player below.
The Grotesque Arena drops March 19th, 2021 through Brilliant Arena Records. Physical and digital versions are available for pre-order on Bandcamp.