Immortal Bird – Sin Querencia
Release Date: 18th October 2024
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal.
FFO: Pig Destroyer, Cattle Decapitation, Oathbreaker, Converge.
Review By: Mark Young
Described as a ‘uniquely harrowing and technically ferocious chaos unit’ Immortal Bird release their third album, Sin Querencia. I don’t know about you, but that description is a stormer, and you hope that the album will unfold and live up to that comment.
There is certainly a pervading feeling of doom about it, the way the songs are built and the way that they move between genre, from death to black and back again, it’s just so solid that there are no missteps. They do this to great effect on opener Bioluminescent Toxins, keeping you wrong-footed, especially when the extreme vocals switch to clean, delivered with power and clarity by Rae Amitay. I know that the use of both styles is becoming a norm, but when they are done this well, it still holds a power to amaze. Plastered Sainthood has this brilliant dynamic running through it, with some manic drums that keep it powering onwards, even when the riffing drops away. The guitar tone is delicious, that right balance of heaviness and a crystal-clear production that allows you to pick up on every nuance, and it is a testament to Matt Korajczyk and Nate Madden on drums and guitar/bass that they can lock in the way they do. Just on the first two tracks, which promise of bringing a ferociousness to proceedings is delivered, and between them, they give this a huge foundation to start from.
Cosanguinity, with its chiming chords, is no less immediate. On here, they go for the atmospheric, building until it is time to go heavy. The sense of discord runs through it, even in the faster moments, and there is something of a drum clinic in the final third as Nate goes to town whilst keeping the song grounded and in place. Propagandized on the other hand is a fist to the face, a muscular riff pattern giving the album its first almost traditional offering. This is top drawer extreme metal on here, with all the moving parts coming together in a brutally effective manner. This is a great track, one of the best I’ve heard this year.
Ocean Endless sees them navigate further into their own unique way of how a song should be put together. Utilising black metal as its starting point, it evolves into this high-octane nightmare of a full-on attack, pounding and pummelling until they change the dynamic and go on a hardcore rampage that comes from nowhere and returns almost as quickly. There is this awesome riff out around 2.30, which is going to be wild live, and suddenly we have an album that has come out of the left field to firmly drop itself onto AOTY lists. That is not a joke. Each song echoes the one before, but has its own identity, Synthetic Alliances mixes in technical chordal motifs against the sheer extreme metal power they possess. The way it closes out is magnificent.
This is a masterclass, and the only thing I’m hoping for now is that they don’t fuck it up with two songs to go, because it would be absolutely criminal.
Spoiler – they don’t.
Contrarian Companions keeps the style of Synthetic Alliances going, and is feels like a companion piece to it. Ripping through its runtime like a tornado, there is no stopping them and as we drop into Sin Querencia they give us one of the finest performances of the year. That combination of technical and brutal, deftly balanced, is here for all to see. I don’t know what a unit of chaos is, but I think that this would be it. Everything about it is just top; the musicianship, the sound, everything is just excellent. But, don’t take my word for it, go and get it.
1. Sin Querencia
2. Bioluminescent Toxins
3. Plastered Sainthood
4. Consanguinity
5. Propagandized
6. Ocean Endless
7. Synthetic Alliances
8. Contrarian Companions
(5 / 5)
