Review: Hideous Divinity – Unextinct

Style: technical brutal death metal, dissonant death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Nile, Hate Eternal, Rivers of Nihil
Review by: Cooper
Country: Italy
Release date: 22 March 2024

There are many barometers that one could use to gauge the quality of an album before even listening, but more often than not the most reliable indicator of an album’s quality is its artwork. In the realm of progressive/technical death metal, there are many ubiquitous artists providing the visuals for our favorite albums, but one who consistently rises above the rest, in terms of both quantity and quality, is Adam Burke. Gracing the albums of bands like Vektor, First Fragment, and Dessiderium, a cover done by Burke is as close to a seal of quality as we have in the progressive metal scene. And now, Hideous Divinity has joined that list with their most recent Unextinct, an album featuring what may be my favorite Burke piece ever. Let’s see if the music can live up to the artwork.

After the brief intro track of “Dust Settles on Humanity,” Unextinct quickly settles into what will be familiar territory for fans of Hideous Divinity with tracks “The Numinous One” and “Against the Sovereignty of Mankind” where the guitars are rapid and hefty, incessant in their performance; the drums are ever-blasting, a wash for which the equally speedy riffs to blend into; and the bass is stable, only erupting into its own during key moments, yet thankfully always audible. The style is reminiscent of what a modernized Nile would probably sound like. To this formula, Hideous Divinity adds the subtlest hints of dissonant death metal and a healthy amount of progressive song structures (see “Atto Quarto: The Horror Paradox”) that both go a long way in fortifying the bleak and mature tone of Unextinct. Still, I can’t decide whether the standout performance on this album is in the vocals or the guitar solos.

Vocalist Enrico Di Lorenzo perfectly accentuates this style of technical brutal death metal, and Unextinct may be his best outing yet. He has several different guttural techniques under his belt ranging from gurgly lows, shrill highs, and an impressive mid-scream that he often inflects to follow along with the guitar driven melodies as heard on tracks “The Numinous One” and “More Than Many, Never One,” the latter of which delves into a Rivers of Nihil-esque emotional climax around its midpoint. The solos, however, are often equally impressive and regularly cemented themselves as my favorite moments on the album thanks of course to, of course, the great lead work but also to the dynamic riffs atop which the leads rode astride. Both aspects must have been written in tandem for each compliments the other, making every solo much more memorable. The solos of both “Leben ohne Feuer” and “Quasi-Sentient” particularly reminded me of the style heard on Vitriol’s recent Suffer and Become, albeit a bit less frenetic and a bit more melodic.

Unextinct is Hideous Divinity’s fifth album since their debut released in 2012, and it shows. The level of maturity and refinement present here speaks to a band more than a dozen years into their career yet still willing to push their sound into new corners, and for the most part, these evolutions pay off. If I had to nitpick, I’d say that “Der verlorene Sohn” should have been nixed entirely; we already have an interlude track in the album’s back half which meanders much less. I’d also mention that the mix on Unextinct seems like a slight downgrade from their previous album Simulacrum, although it isn’t bad by any means; some details just get lost at louder volumes through shitty headphones. Other than that and a few cheesier moments like the sample that begins “Quasi-Sentient” and the yelled vocals during the album’s outro, Unextinct is a damn sleek album bursting at the seams with dense riffage and a wickedly dark vibe. It seems like Adam Burke sure knows what’s up in the metal scene because with Unextinct the list of great albums he has painted for has just grown longer.

Recommended tracks: Quasi-Sentient, Leben ohne Feuer, More Than Many, Never One
You may also like: Vitriol, Arkaik, Hour of Penance
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Metal-Archives page

Label: Century Media Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Hideous Divinity is:
– Enrico Schettino (guitars, lyrics, songwriting)
– Enrico H. Di Lorenzo (vocals, lyrics)
– Stefano Franceschini (bass)
– Davide Itri (drums)