Rvkkvs - Antithesis Of Prosperity

Rvkkvs – Antithesis Of Prosperity
Release Date: 22nd November 2024
Label: Grindhead Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Grindcore.
FFO: Cephalic Carnage, Maruta, Lock Up.
Review By: Mark Young

And now a blast of unashamed heavy metal. RVKKVS, have just dropped one of the best albums of 2024.

This is 17-minutes of intense music that has been stripped of everything but the key moving parts that make up the best in extreme music. Mixing in traditional approaches to death/grind metal with the use of narrated parts spoken over some of the most furious music, this is an album that stakes a claim for being the most direct and immediate release of 2024. The way they navigate between differing genres, often within a sub 2-minute track length, and make it sound authentic is something to behold.

Often starting amongst a cacophony of blasts and frenetic riffing, there is no time wasted on subtle interludes or repeated measures. They start, batter and move on to the next. It is the sort of release where you can listen to this numerous times and find something you missed on your first listen. Even when they slow down, it’s still a rapid affair but do not mistake song length for being a barometer of quality. They squeeze a lot of intent into these, starting at a high gear that just blasts straight through to the end. With other albums that take the same approach, there is a feeling that the songs are shorn of ideas, hence the run-time. These tracks are the polar opposite, in that each one feels as though it is the right length for what they wanted to say. Indeed, their PR notes that the songs themselves are provided as a “cathartic release from the daily grind” and listening to the way these land, I don’t think I want to know what their daily grind is.

I can only hope that they continue to release new music because this is just a shot in the arm for extreme music, especially for death metal/grind because it serves as a vital reminder of what this music should sound like. It does not tell you it’s brutal, it just is.

Buy it, stream it, whatever, just get hold of it and support the hell out of it.