First of all, I can’t believe Dr. Acula is back! When I saw the promo from Silent Pendulum that there’s a new album on the way, I had to triple check and listen to the single a couple of times. It still took a while for the reality to sink in and I’m not going to lie, I had some doubts even after my first listen of the whole album, hahaha!
During my first round with the record, I really didn’t know what to expect. Particularly given what their past material is like. I was amazed and surprised on so many levels. I remember digging into them some time ago for the first time, *checks notes* — oh wow, it’s been eleven years?! Yeah, so, back then it was this highly tongue deathcore type of deal and relatively by the numbers overall. A lot of fun, nevertheless. I just sort of forgot about them as time passed, like, I had no idea they disbanded and only found out recently with the new album announcement.
The transformation is monumental. This self-titled tour de force is not one to easily fuck with. They fully embraced a modern mathcore sound and delivering all the fun associated with them, under a fresh, gritty, riff packed, panic chord laden, demolishing experience, sans the parodic angle so to speak.
I’m not even exaggerating. Moving past “Epilogue”, the album wastes absolutely no time and dives right into one insanely massive and tasty riff which opens the action in “Apotheosis”. Similarly, the main riff from “The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena” goes just as hard, as well as its chug filled, screechy ending, continuing the brutality.
It just doesn’t relent whatsoever. You could’ve called this album Riff Mania Galore 2022 and it would’ve raised basically no eyebrows. If anything, it might’ve sold it more frankly. I caught myself going from still to a headbanging mess sooner or later while listening to the album. You can’t help it, it’s just that infectious. Especially with bits like “Stay Out Of The Basement” which are also super catchy.
Don’t go imagining that fire is being reinvented or anything like that, but we’re looking at a damn fine contender for one of the best, if not, probably the best mathcore album of this year. It’s a highly enticing and well executed staple of heaviness in a revival current (of mathcore) that’s stacked to the brim with copies of copies and that definitely makes it stand out even more so.
I honestly can’t find any fault with it, no matter how I turn it around. There are basically no dips in quality all around. Sure, it isn’t as experimental and wild as some of the giants of the genre take things, but I don’t think the band ever set out to explore that angle. Sometimes it’s cool to just go at it hard with the machine gun riffage and the piercing dissonances for the sake of going at it hard. I’m fine with that and I had an absolute fucking blast with it. I’ll continue to do so on repeat, until I hate it.
