ALBUM REVIEW: Ectoplasma – White-Eyed Trance

A brand new slab of old school Death Metal has landed from Memento Mori Records and Repulsive Echo Records, this time in the form of the third album from ECTOPLASMA. Set for release on October 31st.

Opening things with creepy sampling to set the horror mood, doomy guitars and crashing cymbals quickly blast us into some crawling eerie Death Metal beats. A savagely old school tone emanates from the instruments that hit hard before warping into a pungent groove of upbeat drum hits and meaty riffing. The monstrous vocals come in flawlessly to add even more horrendously brutal drive to pounding stench of truly marvellous extremity. Blundering audacious guitars are consistent on the record with a phenomenally classic feel to the crisp, dry hooks and with plenty of tight drum work backing them up alongside guttural, devastating vocals. These guys go hard and it shows with these album staying exciting from start to end amidst a cacophony of blastbeats, doomy grooves, monolithic rhythms and so much more. For me, the huge array of diversity in tempos is what really makes this record, offering up the morbid Death-Doom vibes regularly, as is common in Memento Mori Records releases, these guys slay it with plenty of thrashing assaults to balance the onslaught of dense Death Metal. Walls of distorted soundscapes layered up so carefully in a manner akin to DEICIDE that just really feels well thought-out and truly conveys a punishing execution. There are times when the soaring ferocity of the guitars or roaring spewed vocals are the focal point but also plenty of glimmering bass warmth, insane drum fills that really allow the full band to do their thing on this record, especially when taken into account how beautifully the mix is put together with a maniacal 90s feel and clarity to it. The record develops wonderfully throughout too, giving an astonishing array of slightly more modern odious spews but with that cavernous old school feel. Although it may have a raw feeling, the total clarity and precision of the band is immense with a fittingly huge production. Guitar leads are used minimally but very effectively with only a few solos on the album but when they appear we are thrown a dose of fabulous shred-work or some classic whammy dives, the way it should be. ECTOPLASMA offer so much range and musical ability in this primal sounding slab of butchery with plentiful nuance and skilful twists under the facade of barbaric and primitive Death Metal when you scratch below the surface this has some utterly excellent subtlety. If you are seeking a brilliantly old school sound Death Metal release with endless energy but also a gorgeously balanced use of slower atmospherics and some melody in small doses, then this is for you. A captivatingly stunning release of truly majestic proportions that offers guttural glory and doomy depravity in perfect equilibrium. -8.5/10