Style: Dissonant / Technical Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Review by: Dan
Country: USA
Release date: 21 May, 2021
I’m generally a sucker for the ugly avant-garde, dredged up from the sewers of the human imagination. Anything uncomfortable or strange tends to pique my interest more than hyper-polished artistic output intended to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, so I was a bit surprised when Nulitas didn’t vibe with me on my first listen. Perhaps it was the pingy snare, or the over-compressed master that ducks with every kick, or maybe it was the halting, lurching songwriting, but I just didn’t get it, and turned it off after a few songs.
Not being one to back down from a challenge, however, I summoned up some extra grit, and tried again a week or so later. What I found was a sprawling, diabolical work of otherworldly art that may not enter my regular rotation, but certainly captivated me for its entire runtime. It’s an atypical offering, but therein lies its charm.
Acausal Intrusion is an American duo that’s managed to create one of the liveliest and most human technical disso-death albums in recent memory. There’s very little polish on these ten grimy tracks. The band instead opts for a warts-and-all approach that includes plenty of string noise and feedback, meandering tempos and misaligned downbeats, but the result is a recording that is refreshingly full of life and soul and a raw earnestness that only reinforces the band’s occult persona.
Certainly, evoking the occult is their intent. In the words of their stringmaster and conceptual mastermind Nythroth: “The acausal realm is the source of all true life. It lays beyond our causal world and is inhabited by ancient entities and chaotic energies usually too terrifying for humans to behold. Their intrusion into our reality can spark an alchemical process of transformation through which the individuals emerge on the other side with renewed self-consciousness.”
This translates to music that is dark and twisted, brutal and sinister, oppressive yet not completely overwhelming. The songs are allowed to breathe, with ambient and doomy interludes between bouts of ferocious blasting. The drumming is outstanding, frantic and chaotic, with every snare hit cutting through the mix like a searing hot knife. The guitars are loose but still quite technical, with rumbling bass that generally follows closely. The vocals, performed by drummer Cave Ritual, are wicked and rich. There are plenty of effects and extra layers of production, creating a dense, churning, indecipherable soundscape that feels more akin to a cloud of spirits than to notes played on instruments. There are few melodies to keep you grounded in reality; instead the swirling, psychedelic riffs will carry you into another plane of existence.
Nulitas is a challenging listen, but deeply rewarding if you can stomach the transcendental trip. The album flow is thoughtful and well-crafted, with outstanding balance, making it best enjoyed in one unbroken experience. As label I, Voidhanger put it, “you will either fear these primal energies of chaos and be destroyed” as I was on my first listen, “or embrace them and be reborn a god.”
Welp, guess I’m a god now.
Recommended tracks: Invocations Apprehension, Manifesting Rites
Recommended for fans of: Tchornobog, Chthe’ilist, Esoctrilihum, Howls of Ebb, pretty much anything on I, Voidhanger
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Metal-Archives page
Label: I, Voidhanger – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Acausal Intrusion is:
– Nythroth (guitars, bass, keyboards, backing vocals, chants, and sinister spells of chaos)
– Cave Ritual (drums, vocals, and rhythmic eroding disruptions)
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