“Violence begets violence, or am I dreaming?“
Ingested perform a rare feat: they impressing both dedicated deathcore and death metal fans, two cohorts with less overlap than you might think. It’s perhaps down to how they connect the dots between the ‘brutal’ elements that come from each genre, or maybe the simple reality of their authentic heaviness. They’ve risen from Manchester without a clear watershed moment, simply expanding their listener base with each release since their debut with Crepitation and Kastrated – a pair of bands who are both active and highly underrated. Keeping pace with their studio releases, The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams is their third album since 2020, a record that keeps them on their narrow path and offers few surprises.
In a genre full of over-extensions and aural flexing, The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams delivers something that is direct, human, unsensational, and unsurprising. If there’s a moment that knocks you off your feet, it’s not because Ingested pulled a fast trick that goes beyond what the three members can really do. There’s no over-layering of the performances, just tangible takes, with a couple of sub drops added to clinch pivotal breakdowns. However, it doesn’t take much to make these songs to turn from solid to stale. Every instrumental moment is tight and controlled, and thus feels gridded and too stuck to its own rails. Even though death metal should be the best terrain to explore esoteric twists and turns, these songs take very few risks in their structure. With few exceptions, Ingested stick to somewhat tired chorus-based, breakdown bookended songs. Far too many of the tracks land at a lethargic four-and-a-bit minutes. It’s true that many death influenced bands take structural exploration too far and almost never repeating a riff within one song, but Ingested don’t hit the right balance for me.
Once you accept what is being offered by The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams, you’ll find the record offers generally good material. “Paragon of Purity” opens the record with heft, straight into vocals across the register, wild solos, beatdown drums, and recurring melodies. It’s rightly the record’s poster child and lead single as it delivers the strongest rendition of Ingested’s preferred song structure. “Endless Machine” contrasts with groovier drum rhythms and a satisfyingly simple opening riff, making use of Sean Hynes’s signature low register jabs. In a gratifying moment, Jason Evans drops the album title after a lush solo. “Expect to Fail” has a giga-breakdown at its end, smothered in a blanket of shrill feedback. The guesting Josh Middleton’s higher register vocals offer some contrast to Evans’ deep, wild, and demented vocals. “Pantheon” has some exiting tempo changes and the short format track works in the record’s favour.
I had less success with several other tracks. Much like the lofty intro to “Echoes of Hate” from their previous record, “Where No Light Shines” opens with and relies on a three note sequence played at a high pitch. This quickly becomes a dull centre of gravity – each time it comes back, it reminds you it’s an overly simple idea, even as the low chromatic stabs dance around it in the slow moments. A track that offers a change of pace is “Numinous”, an instrumental placed at the pivotal centre of the record. Its presence is not actively detrimental, but it is devoid of character, landing in aimless symphonic prog territory. If you told me “Numinous” was written as a guitar tone demo by some bedroom studio YouTuber, I’d believe you.
Following the success of tracks like “Ashes Lie Still” and “Shadows in Time” in 2022, there are several moments with clean vocals, including “Starve the Fire”, and “In Nothingness” with Mark Hunter (Chimaira) on the choruses. In these two cases, the cleans underline the lack of risks taken with song structure as they over emphasise the chorus. The seven minute closer “A Path Once Lost” is a more intriguing offering, quiet in its first two minutes to let Evans’ cleans shine. They ringing out in the tensely reflective intro and during the heavy parts (“I know how it feels / Temptation strains me further / I show what it steals / Begging for a savoir”). This track should stand tall in the Ingested discography, and at least goes toe to toe with their other grand closers like “Scratch the Vein” and “Leap of the Faithless”.
A careful mix keeps the record impactful and avoids much of the fatigue that can set in on lengthy heavy records. The issue is with what Ingested narrowly choose to deliver, sticking to a rote formula that ensures the songs are effective, yet makes for an uninspiring total package. Whilst it will be serviceable for many fans, The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams doesn’t push the boat out far enough.
6/10
The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams releases through Metal Blade Records on the 5th April and can be pre-ordered here.