the arrival of a new split release from New Jersey’s prolific Death Metal entity Replicant and Denmark’s Elitist. The former of these two bands find themselves bound to a recent sharp upwards trajectory within the echelons of the modern American scene. Whilst Elitist, having debuted in 2023 with their full-length ‘A Mirage of Grandeur’ showcased themselves as providers of technically-inclined, beyond human-sounding Death Metal performed with a very enticing chaotic energy. The cerebrally stressed and compositionally complex approach that these bands share makes them a natural fit for a split release with either band contributing four tracks.
The first half is handled by Replicant and track one ‘Anti-Cosmic Spiral’ showcases the band’s usual penchant for disorientating fervour. With rabid lead guitars that shoot above the track’s tumult like burning lasers with vocalist Michael Gonçalves delivering a massive enveloping guttural performance. The song features many great riff ideas and draws to a high conclusion after a brief period of lucid soundscape exploration by bearing down upon the listener with a jagged dissonant full band assault. ‘Breathe the Trepid Hole’ is another exhilarating cut and the wailing higher pitched scream during the song’s opening moments is particularly hair-raising. The very heavy track features a guest vocal performance from Lisa Voisard (Anachronism, Belly Noise) and her intense wailing screams greatly compliment the frantic energy of Replicant. The next track sees the band strike with something of an unexpected left hook on a cover of the Gothic Post Punk band Cocteau Twins’ ‘Swallow Then Halo’. It’s a bold move and obviously brings about a considerable change in dynamics. The band dials down the guitar distortion for the verse sections where Voisard also returns to perform the majority of the song’s lyrics with Gonçalves adding some heavier backup vocal embellishments. The song feels despondent and awash with a morbid gloom that still feels like it could sit alongside a more atmosphere driven portion of a Replicant album; I love it. The band’s typically disfigured terror returns on ‘Menacing Void’ where the musicians toy with a rolling and tightly performed complex exercise in riff-craft. I love the more spacious portion after this track’s mid-section as well as the Demilich-esque guitar parts that follow after it.
Track five introduces Elitist’s material with ‘Enforced Malnourishment’ ramping up the tempo to an insane degree. I like the variation to the song’s vocals in particular and the band manages to pack a considerable amount of tense detail into the two and a half minute track. ‘Configuration Beckons!’ also brings ample intensity while the better part of the composition’s run time hammers away at fairly pummelling linear core meditation. ‘To Unsee, to Untether’ grows across its various phases until, in its final third, it reaches such a scale of unceasing invigoration that it becomes one of the most intense cuts on the split. I love how this track then bleeds into ‘Proclaiming Sovereignty over a Sunless Domain’ which maintains not just the same brutality of the preceding track but actually surpasses it in certain moments. After the track’s initial third, I enjoy the following employment of odd time signatures and the apocalyptic lyrical oration. The pained expressiveness of the track’s final movement feels like an equivalent experience to watching a deadly machine that is taking its last desperate strides before malfunctioning and crashing into the ground.
The level of quality of ‘Indomitable Hostility’ is undeniable. These two bands share tonal similarities in their approaches to musical hostility, but the difference in tempo between their typical approaches means that each leg of this split feels fresh, keeping the material very engaging throughout. If you’ve listened to any music so far by either Replicant or Elitist then I highly recommend you give this a shot as there are some very good tracks contained within this release that will surely please fans of either act.
