INGESTED

Few would dispute that INGESTED have become leading benchmarks for the brutal death metal, slam and deathcore scenes. Relentlessly focused and ferocious, the British crew have done more than virtually any other band to promote this kind of extreme and uncompromising music. And despite gleefully blurring boundaries between different deathly factions, they have earned respect and upheld their responsibilities as scene leaders with a laudable sense of determined duty. But nothing is ever entirely straightforward in the world of jaw-shattering brutality. A few months before its release date, "Denigration" was subject to an abrupt change of personnel, as former vocalist Josh Davies was swiftly given his marching orders after various, unsavory allegations. Not a band inclined to waste time, INGESTED have quickly re-recorded all lead vocals, with guitarists Sean Hynes and Andrew Virrueta stepping up to fill the gaps, and the release schedule has continued as planned, and with the minimum of fuss.

It must have been extremely irritating to face such an impromptu derailment because "Denigration" represents a skillful reset for INGESTED. After a couple of albums that dared to think outside the brutal box, with enhanced levels of atmosphere and occasional concessions to melody, the band's eighth album marks another stylistic mutation in their near-20-year story. As ridiculous as it feels to say it, "Denigration" really is harder, faster, nastier and more horribly dark than anything this band have released previously.

Constructed from the most violent and grimy riffs Hynes have ever penned, and delivered with neck-snapping aggression that even outstrips the berserker BDM of 2009 debut "Surpassing the Boundaries of Human Suffering", these songs showcase the sound of a band that have worked long and hard for their art and simply have no more fucks to give. "Denigration" does not care if anyone's purist sensibilities are offended by detours into skull-cracking deathcore, and nor will its creators' lose a second of sleep over the generous helping of filthy slam riffs that are peppered throughout. INGESTED's death metal has become all-encompassing and authoritative, and this is a towering statement of defiance in the face of the Riff Police. Simultaneously catchy and cataclysmic, songs like monolithic opener "Dragged Apart" and the obnoxiously punishing "Watch You Fold" (featuring DYING FETUS frontman John Gallagher on guttural duty) deliver a constant barrage of adrenalin rushes and blunt force concussions, while standing resolutely apart from the lazily generic.

This is a profoundly ugly and hostile record, but it still exhibits some of the ingenuity that made previous albums like "Ashes Lie Still" (2022) and "The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams" (2024) such startling deviations from the brutal norm. Within the white-knuckle chaos of "Merciless Reflection" (featuring PeelingFlesh frontman Damonteal Harris) and the ruinous extravagance of closer "Cold Sun", INGESTED twist their template into hideous new shapes, while also providing fans with an endless litany of riffs to soundtrack more drunken, sweaty violence. The new, hastily assembled vocals are uniformly killer, and songs like "Steel Toe Truth" and "Stitch By Stitch" audibly outstrip their earlier incarnations (which were briefly available to journalists before Davies's dismissal). All things considered, "Denigration" is both an unequivocal triumph and a reminder that no one is indispensable when a cause is so clearly outlined. Manchester's death metal kings are still reigning.