Engulf – The Dying Planet Weeps
Release Date: 12th January 2024
Label: Everlasting Spew
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Hate Eternal, early Gorguts, early Decapitated and early Ulcerate.
Review By: Eric Wilt
In the last six years, New Jersey’s Engulf has released a two-song EP (Subsumed Atrocity, 2017), a three-song EP (Gold and Rust, 2018), and a four-song EP (Transcend, 2019). The nine songs that made up those three releases showed much promise, as Engulf main-man Hal Microutsicos channeled bands like Deeds of Flesh, Hate Eternal, Ulcerate, and even Morbid Angel into a grim concoction all his own. Writing songs that blend brutal, old-school, and dissonant death metal into an engaging style of extreme metal that is sure to appeal to fans of all types of death metal; Microutsicos even throws in a bit of technical death and some doom metal for good measure.
Now, at the beginning of 2023, Engulf is back with their first full-length and first new release in four years. The album, entitled The Dying Planet Weeps, is an 8-song, 36-minute record that is always exciting, constantly shifting, and full of surprises.
On the new album, Microutsicos doesn’t stray far from the formula that has gotten him to this point in Engulf’s career. From the brutal meets old school death metal on Withered Sun to the Hate Eternal-esque Bellows from the Aether and The Nefarious Hive, Microutsicos proves that he can write a top-tier death metal song on par with the best in the business. Ominous Grandeur comes next and sees Engulf settle into a technical groove that gives way to a death/doom verse that shows the versatility of the band as Microutsicos allows the song to breathe more than most of the other tracks which are constantly full-speed-ahead. Lunar Scourge and Earthbore show Engulf’s appreciation for latter era Morbid Angel, as Microutsicos takes it old-school for a couple more tracks. The dissonance really shows through in Plagued Oblivion, which is full of linear riffing that Luc Lemay would be proud of releasing. Finally, the album ends with the title track, a doomy outro that rounds out the album with the perfect level of melancholy. I’ve been enjoying Engulf’s EPs for years now, and I’m glad Microutsicos has finally gifted us with a full-length. If you already know and love Engulf, you’re not in for many surprises, but then again, you already know that what Microutsicos does, he does well. If you haven’t had the pleasure of listening to Engulf, let this serve as your invitation. If death metal’s your thing, The Dying Planet Weeps is going to be your new thing.
(4 / 5)
