Of Feather and Bone - Bestial Hymns of Perversion

Probably the most genuinely furious of death metal releases I’ve heard this year so far, the word “bestial” in its tile is fitting and well deserved. Though it’s pretty standard death metal, Of Feather and Bone bring enough in the way of attitude and enough memorable musical ideas to take Bestial Hymns of Perversion up a few shelves, not that it’s not gritty and down-and-dirty. It’s well-produced, but it’s not so polished that it sounds robotic. The horrid mesh of low-tuned guitars (which have a pretty great tone to them) and tinny drums actually make the album, book-ended by the sound of flies buzzing (over what I can only assume are corpses), sound visceral and spontaneous.
While the album does suffer from a bit of homogeneity that just barely makes it drag on for a bit, songs like “Mockery of the Ascension” and “Lust for Torment” bring a few needed moments of uniqueness with groovy riffs or wailing harmonics to break up all the muddy, gory-sounding death metal. Still, it’s an album that crafts its appeal through consistent ugliness and brutality rather than sweet licks and catchy, structured songs. Not that those wouldn’t add to it or that those are bad things to have in death metal, but Of Feather and Bone have a more singular approach in mind, clearly, on Bestial Hymns of Perversion, and for accomplishing so well exactly what they set out to do, I think they do deserve praise.

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