Primitive Man & Unearthly Trance - Split

After their tremendously sludgy and brutally hopeless full-length last year, Caustic, Primitive Man have gathered together with Unearthly Trance for a split release to produce somewhat of an aftershock to last year’s city-destroying earthquake of an album (my #3 of last year), and their growth through that album shows on their pair of songs on the first side of the album. Unearthly Trance do not disappoint on this split either, presenting the more intentionally aggressive set of songs on the latter half of the split.

The album opens with fifty-nine seconds of ominous, distorted, industrial introductory noise to which apparently both bands contribute, which then leads into Primitive Man’s side of the split, two songs around the ten-minute mark that lean more toward the band’s earlier, abrasive drone/noise sound on albums like P//M, but with plenty of the abysmally deathly heaviness that characterized Caustic intensifying the already nasty sound that shaped their nihilistic approach early on. The first song, “Naked” is the more sludgy and metallic of the two, building slowly but menacingly from a heavier Sunn O)))-esque drone intro, to the sudden explosion drums breaking open the gates for a booming wall of guitar distortion, to eventually the incorporation of the hellish growls that summon assured doom. The song’s latter half definitely incorporates the depraved and oppressively heavy dirge of Caustic into the more noise-leaning side of their sound. The less structured and subtler “Love Under Will” finds the band more in tune with the dark ambient noise of their earlier days, offering a slightly quiet, yet haunting break for the album to build some tension, which the song’s spurts of distorted guitar echoes help to build. It leaves the door open nicely for Unearthly Trance to re-activate the metallic assault of the album.

Unearthly Trance begins their side of the album with the clear intention of taking a much more direct, unfiltered approach to their attack for the bulk of their time, channeling some potent blackened sludge with a similarly sardonic tone to what Primitive Man’s side of the split led with. Their first song, “Mechanism Error” wastes no time with formalities and simply jumps right into a harrowing andante barrage of black metal and sludge that fittingly snaps the tension Primitive Man built for them. It’s a bit overdrawn, especially for a split, but certainly fits in and adds to the tone of the album. The following track, “Triumph”, is a little more energetic and black metal-focused, which definitely adds a bit of stylistic dynamic to the album; definitely a step up from the previous song. Unearthly Trance’s third song, “Reverse the Day”, though, is definitely their strongest and perhaps the whole album’s strongest, a grand, sludgy mid-paced burner of abrasively bass-y and distorted black metal that absolutely scorches. It trades off between these prominently bass-driven sections with and without harsh blasts of guitar wailing, which eventually culminates in an indulgently dissonant bridge. The band closes the album with the track “418″ by circling back to the more noisy and industrial sound that began the album; to call it a cool-down feels a bit to unfitting considering it’s still harsh as shit. It feels more like the unceremonious eternal fall into the darkness of hell after the album’s previous tracks opened the gates.

I really liked what both bands brought to this split. And of all the splits I’ve heard in recent memory, this definitely felt the most cohesive and the most thoughtfully put together. It seems like both bands contributed not only based on their common ground, but also gave their full effort on these songs. Primitive Man’s tracks did not sound like mere leftovers from Caustic or Scorn, rather feeling quite encapsulating of the band’s trajectory in sound, and Unearthly Trance provided a strong batch of songs to gel nicely with the vile, cavernous howls of death Primitive Man set the tone with, which is definitely a laudable feat. I liked this a lot, certainly my favorite split release I’ve heard this year.