Hailing from Alabama, Ectovoid I would describe as a cross between Morpheus Descends, Autopsy and Incantation blended together with their own twists. ‘Dark Abstraction’ is their second album, initially released in back in 2015. It opens with a hissing wall of living noise before a descent where we’re faced with grimy and dried out vocals as though from a desiccated sunburnt corpse, delivered with some slight reverb to them like they were recorded inside an elevator shaft. On some songs on the album like ‘Visions of Reflective Decay’ and ‘The Expanse Between Slumber and Death’ they sound more like they were delivered from a massive cavern dwelling creature. This vocalist hits some good “Ugh” moments on this album too which is always sick.
There are a good deal of mid paced “cauldrons and pitchforks” sections in the music with some nice melodic ideas touched on as well. The drummer is rocking, effective cymbal work and awesome fills are laying down a strong foundation. Some hard charging stuff all around and a cool “galloping onward” blasting part with a slight shuffle to it on ‘The Expanse Between Slumber and Death’ as well, really good track. The toms are getting a work out on this album and all the pieces of the kit are audible here and in use and you can hear them spaced apart nicely in the mix. The bass is slick and mixed in a complimentary way that fits together with the other instruments well. I love what it adds to the music here, the bassist isn’t afraid to venture forth into higher territory on the neck just to dive down into the depths again in songs like ‘Mental Netherworlds’.
Guitars on this album are loud, pummelling and fully stocked with riffs that hit like a hammer. ‘Rituals of Hallucination’ has a badass intro, this is some real “Terminator Death Metal”; the sort of thing that plays in the gym in hell. It has a hefty Doom section that sounds like a titan on a warpath and the song ends with just the guitar playing this descent into nothingless riff that fades away. ‘A Prisoner of Paradox’ gives us some swampy vocals from beneath the bog which I enjoyed, some nice variation across the board.
This is a perfect length at 35 and a half minutes, just a nice duration nothing overstays it’s welcome here and it feels cohesive as a project overall. These guys are professionals and have been in a bunch of other bands and it’s clear on this album that they know what they’re doing. I think we can safely assume we’re in good hands when something’s being cooked up in this band’s kitchen and this album definitely holds up ten years on from it’s original release.
