EP REVIEW: Sewer Fiend – Echoes From The Cistern

The UK Death Metal underground is currently a hotbed of killer bands, spewing from the Anglian abyss. One new example is SEWER FIEND who recently unveiled their debut EP via Sewer Rot Records and Dry Cough Records.

Starting off with psychedelic guitars, the spectral vibes of this EP instantly emanate something otherworldly as grotesque bass lines and gargantuan riffs join with crashing cymbals. Marching drums pound in a more mid-tempo crawl that picks up into blast beats while the guitars tremolo pick dripping ooze in such a vile way that one can feel the tepid air pushed out of the speakers as sprawling slower riffs contort into those more cosmic cleans. The vocals are equally rancid to make a memorable impression with the fungal instrumentals. Barbaric moments of slower savagery hammer into walls of higher paced ferocity to create a blundering, swampy and dismal soundscape of pure rotten filth. The first and second songs have a more traditional punch to them, while upholding plenty of variety and stench-ridden brutality, while the third track is a 10 minute opus of morbidity. Between the crash of cymbals and intense kicks, we get some bouncy drum work that accentuates the macabre groove of the riffs while never feeling jolly or out of place, preferring to keep things in a festering crawl of malignant mayhem.

With a cavernous production to convey these odious soundscapes of atmospheric Death Metal dread, right off the bat this debut EP will make waves in the underground. Starting as they (hopefully) mean to go on, Sewer Fiend deliver rancid old school Death Metal of epic proportions that while primitive, has these expansive flares that serve to give a somewhat more estranged feeling to this music than typical Death-Doom. Do not hesitate to dig into the crypt with this splendidly sickening EP.