Hideous Divinity – Unextinct
Reviewed By: Jon Santitoro
Review Score: 9
With an amazing 2023 now in the rear view mirror; ’24 looks to be off to a blistering start, spearheaded by the latest release from death metal veterans Hideous Divinity. Their forthcoming album, Unextinct, showcases their uncanny songwriting ability and musicianship with a remarkable blend of tech-death complexity and black metal atmospherics. In short, this album is definitely NOT one-dimensional. Subtle instrumental interludes accent savage blast-beat driven riffs and pummeling break downs, rather than distracting from them in this brilliant and brutal masterpiece.
The larger-than-life intro, ‘Dust Settles On Humanity’, perfectly sets the stage for the auditory carnage that follows. The track itself is short but epic, with its colossal riffs and tone.
The band really gets down to business from there. The next track, ‘The Numinous One’, is a seven-minute monster that runs the gauntlet of blast-beat driven insanity, NYCHC-esque breakdowns and, again, those black metal atmospherics. Complex and powerful, there’s an undeniable sense of controlled chaos with this one. The rampage continues with ‘Against The Sovereignty Of Mankind’; a ferocious yet catchy tech-death crusher that might be the most uncompromising track on the album.
The real standout on Unextinct is ‘Atto Quatro The Horror Paradox’; an eight minute epic-filled voyage with monstrous riffs and numerous twists and turns that keep the listener captivated throughout the entire song. ‘Quasi Sentient’ is a fairly straightforward crusher, while ‘Hair, Dirt, Mud’ is an interesting, off-kilter track that somehow both fits and stands apart from the album as a whole.
The back half of Unextinct is as fascinating and punishing as the front; with the moody, dark masterpiece ‘More Than Many Never One’ taking center-stage here. Two more full-length tracks and a minute long interlude follow, with the closer, ‘Leben Ohne Feuer’ being the most black metal sounding track on the album. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing on a release as multi-faceted as this one.
Overall, Unextinct is a well produced and extremely well-written work that both challenges and rewards the listener with its depth and complexity. The guys in Hideous Divinity have to be proud of the hard work they’ve put into this one.
Unextinct is scheduled for release March 22nd via Century Media and is well worth checking out.