Album Review: Resin Tomb – “Cerebral Purgatory” (Sludge/Death Metal)

Written by Kep

I’m a well-established fan of pretty much every project that multi-instrumentalist and Resin Tomb guitarist Brendan Auld is involved in. In fact, my review of the Feculent debut was the fifth thing I wrote for Noob Heavy (I gave it an 8/10), and my review of Descent’s latest, which kicked off 2022 here at the site, features a similar first paragraph to this one. Auld‘s solo project Snorlax is one of my faves, and I firmly believe that everyone is sleeping on Daedric Armour, a nifty little Elder Scrolls-themed black metal outfit in which he plays drums. His recording and production studio Black Blood Audio has also handled a ton of killer shit, from releases from bands like Pustilence, Idle Ruin, and Malignant Aura to loads of underground hardcore and d-beat. As you might expect, I also really dug Resin Tomb’s early EPs, and was extremely pumped when I saw they’d been signed by Transcending Obscurity and were slated for a debut full-length. 

The five-piece’s self-titled debut EP packed a nasty punch with five highly aggressive and bewilderingly dissonant tracks across less than 16 minutes, and miniature follow-up release Unconsecrated // Ascendancygot a bit more atmospheric despite its brief seven-minute runtime. Cerebral Purgatory is the platonic ideal of the two EPs’ musical concepts grown into full album form: tightly focused songwriting, extraordinary levels of aggression, and enough hideous atmosphere to make you suffocate. At 29 minutes it won’t waste even a moment of your time, but it’s not scant on ambition either; these eight tracks are far from the sort of paint-by-number aggression you might expect if you’re unfamiliar with Resin Tomb’s brand. 

That brand is dissonant death metal in the vein of Replicant or Gorguts funneled through a filth-ridden mixture of blackened sludge and grind. It’s full-throated ugliness, thick and grimy, but surprisingly atmospheric and with a good deal of clarity in the execution. There are some simply enormous, enormous sounds on this record. Take a listen to the slow build of the title track (one of a couple where the opening riff feels especially Replicant-y), spending two full minutes to grow from a gnarly solo guitar lick to a lurching full band lumber to a huge blasting furnace. Auld’s production is a massive boon to the guitars: chords and similarly chunky sounds are thick and muscular, while those dissonant lines reach and writhe and jut out with outstanding bright crunchy tone.

Vocalist Matt Budge spearheads the aggression with a stellar turn, balancing screaming highs and bestial chesty roars atop a strong foundation of powerful midrange bellowing screams. Drummer Perry Vedelago is extremely impressive as well, powerful and pummeling with precision to boot. He takes what are already some killer riffs and makes them downright infectious: his cymbal-dancing groove midway through “Flesh Brick”, for example (further highlighted by a guest vocal spot from Burial Pit’s Scott Tabone), is the sort of stuff you look forward to on repeat listens. 

And the riff-work from the axe trio of Auld (guitar), Matt Gordon (guitar), and Mitch Long (bass)? Top notch ass-kicking shit teeming with an optimal amount of dissonance that ratchets up the ugliness without going so far as to be inaccessible to the average listener. I adore riffs like the one “Human Confetti” is built on: deliberate, held-back tempo, twinging intervals that protrude out, filth-ridden raw-nerve tone, monster bass thwacking along below, nifty harmonizing to expand the original lick. And I defy any fan of Replicant to not immediately love “Scalded”, with its angular juts and twitchy chugs that play as well with huge crashing 4/4 rhythms as they do against blast beats. These tracks are so tight and so catchy, and they aren’t hurting for variety either; twisting riffs in the vein of Sunless (“Purge Fluid”) and the aforementioned Replicant worship play well alongside tracks like opener “Dysphoria”, that lean more directly into ferocious death metal, albeit with a barbed sort of dissonant slant. Honestly, even without much variety a 29-minute album isn’t a hard listen, but Cerebral Purgatory stays inventive and engaging throughout.

THE BOTTOM LINE

If you’re looking for the first truly filthy slab of monolithic death metal in 2024, look no further than the sludgy suffocating violence of Cerebral Purgatory. Resin Tomb have delivered on the expectations set forth by their first two EP releases and gifted heavy music fans with a fraught and focused ball of nastiness that’s too catchy and aggressive to spin only once or twice.