CABAL

There have definitely been moments when deathcore has seemed a rather one-dimensional phenomenon, but this definitely isn't one of them. CABAL certainly use the much-maligned subgenre as a starting point, but as was evident on their 2018 "Mark Of Rot" debut, they prefer to gleefully drag it down a dark alley and stamp on its face. Darker, gnarlier and purposefully detached from any semblance of party-starting cheeriness, "Magno Interitus" is what happens when deathcore abandons all hope and dives willingly into the abyss.

CABAL throw down the gauntlet in the first instance: "If I Hang, Let Me Swing". It is a crucifying plea for terminal mercy, attached to some severely warped and violent grooves. You could describe it as catchy, but only in the same way that scabies is catchy. The title track repeats the trick, with juddering breakdowns that feel like tangible threats of violence, and an underlying whine of ghostly keys and broken machinery. "Existence Ensnared" is a blur of whiteout violence and glitchy, downtempo sludge, with a final riff that thuds, twitches and fades to debilitating black.

There are even nastier secrets to unearth as the album progresses. "Blod Af Mit" is a grinding, industrial nightmare that has more in common with BLUT AUS NORD than any deathcore band you might name. "Violent Ends" hinges on crazed blastbeats, sledgehammer syncopation and the return of that that scabies-like catchiness. "Like Vultures" is arguably the most startling of the lot: another avalanche of grubby, serrated-edge riffs, interspersed with swathes of LAIBACH-like electro-pomp. "Exsanguination" follows and takes the trophy for the song that comes closest to at least aping deathcore convention. But CABAL audibly reject the digitized polish of most their contemporaries, and every inch of "Magno Interitus" has some foul, fetid dirt under its fingernails. As a result, even at its most straightforward, this sounds like a missive belched up from Hell's depths.

It ends with "Plague Bringer"; another unpredictable barrage of blown-circuit belligerence that leaves the very notion of generic deathcore in a broken, bloody heap. What a brilliant, horrible record. Excellent work.