This fucking album. When Stalking the Ghost dropped in 2017, it was the first album released by Unearthly Trance since their reanimation. The shambling horror show that is NYC sludge metal band broke up in 2011, got back together, and then dropped their sixth album of signature black metal meets cacophonous tar-choked metal on the unsuspecting populous of this wet dirtball of a celestial body. People talk up Melvins, Neurosis and Isis like they were the pinnacles of what low, slow, and brooding rock music can do to unsettle the human psyche. I suspect the fact that Uneathrly Trance escapes such similar praise is because of the cerebral damage their concussive riffs are prone to cause. Brain damage is the only possible explanation. This band cut a split back in 2018 with Primitive Man for fuck's sake! This is a band that knows terror and captures it succinctly with the whirlwind of their sound. Places to stop and sights to wish to unsee on this tour of abject madness include the pummeling “Into the Spiral” with its fiery guitar work and reptilian bass lines, the deliberate slow burn of “Dream State Arsenal” with its oceanic grooves and mammoth riffs, the merciless and rhythmic hammering of “Scythe,” and “The Great Cauldron” with it's he flesh cleaving riffs which churn and lap wickedly at the creases of your ears. When it comes to heavy music, Unearthly Trace is the real fucking deal.
