Denver’s first and only Death Sludge band is back!
Primitive Man is returning after a three year absence apparently and since I don’t follow the band on the regular that isn’t really news to me. What IS news to me is that this record and this band slay because having just listened through the resulting album after those three years and having not heard anything previously of PM from start to finish….well, I don’t know what I just heard….but I like it!
But I digress!
Today’s review is brought to you by the letter “D” because there are a lot of words beginning with that one that best describe Immersion. For starters, it’s dirge-filled and downright devious. For a newbie to the Primitive Man sonic world, the new record as a whole comes off as heavy and huge. It’s like Type O Negative’s sonic early experimentations on Slow, Deep, and Hard (Think the bridges in “Der Untermensch” or “Prelude To Agony” especially) and the sludge of Crowbar Odd Fellows Rest mixed with Napalm Death and Eyehategod slowed to a snail’s pace for maximum effect.
“The Lifer” is your gateway into this latest collection of crushing anthems as Ethan Lee McCarthy leads the journey with decimating guitar tones and a destructive growl that conveys so much with nary a distinguishable phrase uttered between shrieks and diabolical grunts. “Entity” is built from McCarthy’s guitars and Joe Linden’s slow, deliberate and cavernous drum accents while “Menacing” is a brutal pummeler to start before slinking off into the abyss as Jonathan Campos’ bass lines seemingly bounce off the walls creating a sonic blanket with McCarthy’s ominous guitar presence.
Soaked in feedback, “Foul” begins birthed in noise then rocks back and forth and transports listeners to a tumultuous journey across the stormy seas while “Consumption” brings it all together and inevitably concludes the record in an oddly majestic way with a primal pulse throughout as Linden’s percussion propels the track into utter disarray by sowing the seeds of dissonance that McCarthy and Campos have sown with their respective guitar and bass fretwork.
Immersion arrives via Relapse Records on August 17th. You can pre-order yours now by clicking here or here. For more on Primitive Man, head to the interwebs and view their socials by clicking here, here, or here.