
This isn't the Withered I remember, but I can certainly get used to this. New vocalist Ethan McCarthy, who you might recognize from Colorado's Primitive Man and Vermin Womb, makes this new lineup sound all more feral, his voice resembling an anthropomorphic bear. The base of dazzling, hardcore-influenced blackened death metal is the same, but the inclusion of one Colin Marston, who seems to have joined every band in existence this year, has resulted in a bizarre, mesmerizing, technical fragmenting of Thompson's vision. A good kind of surprising, but, aside from project mastermind Mark Thompson, this is an entirely different band, so change was inevitable. To be fair, the last time I heard from this Atlanta-centered extreme metal troupe was with 2008's Folie Circulaire, whose Today Is The Day-meets-Autopsy intensity had left a lasting mark, so this sudden shift was.surprising. the latest of which - Psionics - is due for release in September 2016. Withered is back, but they are also.different. The definition of gothic metal is commonly debated amongst fans and the media.

Withered - Grief Relic | Season of Mist | Experimental Black/Death Metal | United States
