Reviews: Sumac, Codex Mortis, Cainites, Illdisposed (Reviews By Dan Bradley, Rick Eaglestone, Mark Young & Richard Oliver)

Sumac – The Healer (Thrill Jockey) [Dan Bradley]

Post-metal pioneers Sumac have been destroying, rebuilding and refining the genre boundaries of heavy music for almost a decade. Their latest album The Healer is no less ambitious, consisting of four tracks spread over 76 minutes; the first and last tracks, World Of Light and The Stone’s Turn, more than earn their sprawling 25 minutes and bookend the merely 13-minute tracks Yellow Dawn and New Rites. It’s an album to be savoured. 

Led by vocalist and guitarist Aaron Turner (ex-ISIS) and featuring Brian Cook on bass (Botch, Russian Circles) and Nick Yacyshyn on drums (Baptists), the supergroup takes an avant-garde approach that tests the limits and emotional range of guitar-driven art, incorporating elements of noise, sludge, metal, drone and improvisation. The production is raw and claustrophobic, rough edges gloriously intact, and effectively captures the electricity of a live performance. You can hear this from the outset in Cook’s gritty, stumbling bass improvisations that sound like you’re sat cross-legged in front of his amp, every bit of creaking string noise and squeak audible, before Yacyshyn opens up his kit with battering, exploratory runs. 

Their violent improvisations gradually ascend into several minutes of sublime feedback and drone, then only at the 6-minute mark do we get anything resembling a post-metal song as the full band reforms, commanded by Turner’s vicious growl. This oscillation between form and formlessness, structure and chaos, is a constant thread through Sumac’s work. The Healer is driven by such momentum too, moving from unhurried improvised guitar and bass sections, to liminal spaces of quiet, melodic reflection, to unsettling dissonance, noise and feedback, allowing ideas the time and space to breathe and develop over the long tracks. 

For riff-lovers, there are plenty of thrilling, cathartic landslides of guitar, bass and drums, as well as searing solos like the extended workout in Yellow Dawn. The album is ultimately restless, questing, and never lets the listener get too comfortable, with grooves hitting their stride, disintegrating into hopeless chaos, before rising again. In a New Noise interview, Turner talked about not only the importance of catharsis in Sumac’s music, but also “sustained tension and creating states of suspension, where there’s not an obvious beginning or end”. The Healer demands – and rewards – your full attention. 8/10

Codex Mortis – Tales Of Woe (Black Lion Records) [Rick Eaglestone]

Dutch extreme metallers Codex Mortis return with their latest album Tales Of Woe – a tale of an evil spirit that tortures a man through demonic possession and mind control. Opener Forsaken immediately places the listener into the album’s narrative with a blistering delivery with Capricious Disembodied Villain rife with dissection fury and influence.

There are some additional soundscapes on Chosen which really add to the atmosphere and also the use of tempo changes give a chance for other instruments to have that dominate place and overall have a nice blackened tone to it, also the solos are incredibly noteworthy. 

Already past the halfway point there is more of a death metal approach on Trenched In Blood to continue the circle of terror as it crashes into the foreboding yet savage Fire, Screams And Death before finally ending the bleak and terrifying subject matter contained in the album although embodying the fast paced overall nature with easily Tales Of Woe’s heaviest track It Dies With Me.

Overall, the album is well produced and delivered with high intensity throughout. Impressively Concise 7/10

Cainites - Revenant (Scarlet Records) [Mark Young]

Right, so some albums can get hold of you right from the start. Others can take their time to get under the skin and become essential to you. And then there are those that no matter how many times you listen to them you just can’t get onboard. Unfortunately, this is one of those times. Revenant is the debut release from Cainites, a duo that have formed the band under as two orthodox vampire priests. 

I’m not entirely sure if this is meant to make them stand-out amongst their peers? Anyway, it is a collection of melo-death that for the most part does what is expected of it but does so without really grabbing me. There is nothing wrong with it and I would think that fans of that genre would find a lot to love but for me it felt a bit tame. The songs themselves have a blend of the heavy and the melodic whilst there is the clean / growled singing that is commonplace nowadays but there was no real visceral thrill.

Darkness Awaits starts us off on the front foot, with a quirky hook, followed an energetic riff with drums to suit. It’s a fine start but sets out the template quite early for me. The extreme into clean vocals didn’t add anything and the cleaner section is aimed at a core group of fans, at least that is my take. Theotokos has that similar feel, and once that sets in it starts to lose me and no amount of speedy drumming is bringing me back in. 

Running through the remainder of the tracks, what strikes me is that there are some good progressions on here, but the way they are put together it comes across as contrived, like it has been specifically written in a style to attract a certain age bracket. I could be wrong, but as an example, Vampire God has that particular arrangement of a descending chord progression whilst some thin, clean vocals are dropped over it which set my teeth on edge.

As a whole, it didn’t click with me at all. I don’t know if it is how they are built, or if it is not aimed at my age group (which is entirely possible) but it didn’t resonate at all. I hate not liking new music and I equally hate writing something negative, but I can’t help it on this. I couldn’t get on with any of the songs at all and found myself wanting to skip to the next track which is unforgivable. Rather than go on and moan, I’ll just say that they have work to do for the next release. 5/10

Illdisposed - In Chambers Of Sonic Disgust (Massacre Records) [Richard Oliver]

In Chambers Of Sonic Disgust is the fifteenth album from long running Danish death metal band Illdisposed. Always a band that release albums on a regular basis, a combination of factors has resulted in a five year gap between albums with their last release being Reveal Your Soul For The Dead in 2019. We all know the fuckery that happened in 2020 which was a contributing factor but guitarist Rasmus Henriksen was diagnosed with brain cancer and has unfortunately left the band to focus on his treatment. This has meant that former guitarist Ken Holst has re-joined the band bringing Illdisposed back up to a five piece.

Musically this album is more of the same from Illdisposed with this being a groove heavy take on death metal and melodic death metal but with an emphasis on atmosphere. The groove takes centre stage on songs such as I Walk Among The Living and The Ill-Dispose whilst the melodic and atmospheric side of the band comes to the fore on songs such as Start Living Again with its use of keyboards and the melodeath of I Suffer. The band does also nod to its death metal origins in the furious And Of My Hate.

Illdisposed have been in their comfort zone for a good number of years and apart from the odd experimental moment here and there they remain in their comfort zone on In Chambers Of Sonic Disgust. It’s a solid eleven song album of groove laden melodic death metal but it is a bit on the repetitive side meaning that not much really jumps out on the album. It’s certainly not a bad release by any means but it’s also not the strongest release by the band.

If you want a solid and reliable release from Illdisposed then this album will tick all the boxes as it meets all the prerequisites of a good Illdisposed album but it’s not going to wow the average listener. This is Illdisposed playing to their strengths but sounding just a bit too comfortable. 6/10