Denmark is the origin of this short but relentlessly brutal episode in Death/Grind. Right from the opening “Blank Visuals”, the EP “Catenation of Adversity” is energetic, dark and violent. The drums trigger and pound away, while the guitars are deep and menacing. “Stained Glass Revelations” continues in the same vein of roared harshness. It’s so similar to the first one that I had to double check that we were on track 2. Occasionally the guitars reach melodic heights, in fact the band could have exploited such moments on “Degeneration Requiem” and “The Arsonist” without watering the brutality down and adding a bit of interest. “The Arsonist” hints at twists and turns in the frenetic guitar work. Meanwhile the vocalist growls on. The track “Catenation of Adversity” has a neat bit of doom towards the end, which again could have led to something but mostly it’s chugging violence of the bang – bang – bang – thump – thump – thump variety.

I enjoyed “Catenation of Adversity” and the 14 and a half minutes went by in no time. It gets full marks for brutality but not for originality. It really needed an extra dimension or two. On this showing, I could see By The Patient filling an early slot at the London Deathfest and going down really well, only to be forgotten about as the ante gets upped later in the piece. Still, this is fresh and there’s a lot of promise here.

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Andrew Doherty

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