Review: Immortal Bird – 'Empress/Abscess'

IMMORTAL BIRD
'Empress/Abscess'
BROKEN LIMBS

Chicago's Immortal Bird peddle a ferocious blend of black metal, Thrash Metal, death metal and crusty grindcore that can only really be summed up with the word... extreme. Scathing guitars, blistering blast beats and demonic vocals power through their full-length début 'Empress/Abscess', leaving scorched ears and speakers in their wake.

With only five tracks to the album's name, the band work hard and fast to establish their mission statement. With nods to the likes of elements of early Satyricon, Nile, Suffocation, and Venom within their technically proficient execution, songs such as the opener 'Neoplastic', as well as 'Saprophyte', and 'Sycophant' exude a relentless brutality that still keeps things nice and tight with some great memorable riffs thrown into the mix.

The album's crowning glories though have to be the final two tracks 'To A Watery Grave', which gives way from the heaviness in favour of some beautiful piano work towards the end, and the ten minute prog-tinged closer 'And Send Fire' that moves from doomy riffs to blistering assaults with ease before fading out into ambient drones.

The album is brilliantly mixed and the production reflects the technical prowess at work on the recordings. It is a strong, self-assured, tight, but most of all wonderfully fresh and modern sounding album.

This album will have a lot of people sit up and take notice. Although to call it a full-length album at a total of 31 minutes long does seem to be pushing it, it is nonetheless a complete and vehement statement of intent. What they lack in running time they more than make up fore in song-writing brilliance.  

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