Auroch - Mute Books (2016)^{Release ID: 20576}

Starting out as a thrash metal band in the late noughties, Auroch had developed into a blackened death metal outfit by the time they got round to their third full length.  With nods to the sounds of Grave Miasma, Portal and Mitochondrion through out the record, Mute Books offers a chaotic and sonic adventure into a swarming maelstrom of horror and hideous form.

Regrettably this incarnation of evil doesn't always work out that well.  There's some clunky structures here amidst the cloying madness that even given their surroundings stand out as being a little too odd at times.  The weak shouting of the ironically titled Say Nothing is one such track that is burdened with this miscalculated delivery not withstanding the fact that there are also some very unexpected and equally odd female spoken word passages added in also to add to this cumbersome feel.

The vocals range from a Benton-like, venomous spit to a cavernous almost death doom like style and the guitars deliver a tremolo picked sound that mines the tracks they span over to the point of entering your skin it seems.  They feel sharp, as does the tightness of the drum work which is one of the albums more memorable parts overall with Zack Chandler displaying his skills well across all tracks.  The production job is decent enough also, letting all parts work in unison on the instrument front whilst still allowing the vocals to lead and carry the sound forwards.

Overall it is a respectable foray into blackened death metal that just gets it's shoe laces tangled together on a couple of occasions but never quite goes flat on it's face as a result.