Angerot – The Profound Recreant
Release Date: 24th March 2023
Label: Redefining Darkness Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Morbid Angel, Massacre, Entombed.
Review By: Rick Farley
Crushing modern death metal with a healthy love of the HM-2 old school, hailing from the Midwestern pits of hell in Sioux Falls, South Dakota? You bet your ass there is, and it’s fucking glorious. Angerot established themselves in 2018 as a major player in the realm of OSDM with the release of their Swedeath, chainsaw riff filled debut full length, The Splendid Iniquity. It was a beast of an album that banged a lot of heads and levelled a few buildings. 2020 brought the band into a blackened vibe with more focused song writing, but still punishing. Now, Angerot are ready to unveil album number three upon an unsuspecting world, eager for a venomous taste of the past but with modern leanings. The Profound Recreant is exactly that, a powerful combination of the first two albums but ready to punch 2023 right square in the nuts with a bulldozing contemporary clenched fist. This isn’t entirely your father’s death metal.
The Profound Recreant is a tooth shattering blast of revitalized old school vibes made for today’s forward-thinking metalhead. Songs like Bastard Creature is a brutal track full of swagger and buzzing riffs that are both groovy and blistering. Jason Ellsworth and Chad Petit rips through jagged riff after jagged riff filled with shimmering metallic qualities that will shred your flesh clean off. This is still HM-2 flavoured guitar tones, however, but only with a brand-new chainsaw. It will definitely tear apart your skull and grind your fucking bones to dust, but just look really fucking shiny while doing it. Sammy Duet, of Goatwhore infamy, rips off a feverish solo worthy of Satan himself. With less than two minutes left, the track lets you take a few extra breaths before your execution with a slower paced doomy riff underneath, some creepy spoken word and a menacing piano passage, only to finish the job with an ominous lead involving heavy whammy use. Angerot is known for having multiple guest spots on their albums and with this record being no exception, some big names like Andy LaRocque of King Diamond and Jack Owen of Six Feet Under lend their guitar savageness. Three different songs includes a guest appearance from keyboardist David Gutierrez Rojas of Haliphron that add symphonic drama to the knuckle dragging soundscape. My personal favourite guest, though, is Steve Tucker from Morbid Angel on In the Company Ov Wolves. The back and forth gutturals from him and equally brutal vocalist/guitarist Chad Petit are fiercely savage. Chad’s growls are distinctive as well as incredibly intelligible. He has tremendous range of tone in his gut-wrenching vocals that could disintegrate a brick wall. Behold the Blessed Black highlights the bass rumblings of Zaugg, with just enough low end to rattle your brains into mush, while gut punching your body with imperil blasting and heavy groove from drummer Matt Johnson.
Hints of orchestral passages mixed with nasty black metal vibes is reminiscent of Cradle of Filth at times. A pulsing swagger in the guitars hint at Morbid Angel while others bring to mind some Slayer inspiration, coming full circle to a clash of Floridian and Swedish death metal in 2023. Nothing is ever blatant, but the band feels right at home with the 90s without ever dipping fully into the past.
At the end of the day, you’ll eagerly come back to this album over and over for your daily dose of headbanging, pit smashing, ass stomping metal. Loads of groove, chugging guitars, whammy dives, wicked melodies, and tons of extra flavours make this a hell of a listen. Crank this one up and break something.
(4 / 5)
