Mental Cavity – Mass Rebel Infest
Release Date: 25th June 2021
Label: Creator-Destructor Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Hardcore, Death Metal, Sludge.
FFO: Judiciary, Xibalba, Crowbar.
Review By: Ken Love
Mental Cavity are an Australian metallic hardcore band whose new album ‘Mass Rebel Infest’ is a deft amalgam of New York Hardcore with pummelling Old School Death Metal and swampy Sludge which will appeal to those who enjoy their riffs filed under the ‘meaty as fuck’ variety.
The album was recorded during the quarantine period of 2020 by the band members themselves, at home, and the record does genuinely brim with life as a consequence of this. There is a live quality to the recordings – you can hear the scrapes of fingers moving up the fretboard – which makes it feel like you’re in the room with the band while they play. This realness is a huge asset to the record and gives it a palpable energy.
The record opens with ‘Interred, Awoke’ which is like Crowbar channelling their innermost Morbid Angel; NOLA doom riffs open into blistering Death Metal bludgeon and doesn’t let up for the duration. ‘Fractured Anvil’, the bands’ latest single – released on the same day as the record – was so named as the band deemed it so sonically heavy that it could literally “smash something heavy” (to quote vocalist/guitarist Aaron Osbourne). This is a fair summation; the track is just pure weight and bulk. In every way. Tracks like ‘Mask Tearer’ & ‘Anointing The Filth’ explode with d-beat pace; the former perhaps the most hardcore punk moment on the record (excluding the Cro-Mags cover) opening with a galloping hardcore bassline that mutates into frantic death metal tremolo picking then back into careering punk; it’s insanely fun and an album highlight for sure. The band have a knack of creating pummelling riff after devastating groove across the record and it trundles along like an out of control panzer tank.
‘Mass Rebel Infest’ is a great & succinct record that is pure pace and fire. Musically, this record rips, it’s backed to the rafters with colossal grooves, frenetic pace and moments that require you to bang your head as if your life depended on it. With only 2 songs extending over 3 minutes in length, it is over quickly, a record designed to smash your jaw with a flurry of punches and then leave. It does this well. The only mild criticism which could be levied – which is purely down to personal taste – exists with the vocals. It can be a tad one-dimensional and there weren’t enough moments that stick in terms of memorable hooks, choruses or vocal lines. It does tend to blur together as a consequence. To these ears, this is the next thing the band need to box off to take themselves to the next level as they’re on fire in regards to the music itself.
Regardless of the latter personal quips on the vocals, Mental Cavity are definitely ones to watch and ‘Mass Rebel Infest’ is well worth your time.
(3 / 5)
