Grief is an immaculate emotion that forces the brain to become a contortionist. Depending on severity, the mind will bend, warp, twist- even fucking break- the very body and soul found in each one of us. The response to a loss, whether it's of a person, trust, self-love, death, or a shattered idea or belief, can lead us into the darker aspects of our nature: hatred, isolation, ideation, and self-loathing. All-consuming emotions that quickly hijack the body and soul into a hunger that is as self-destructive as it is malicious.
Emerging as one of this year's most malicious and isolating albums, Deathcore juggernauts, Distant, release "Into Despair". The 13-track album from the Dutch/Slovakian outfit signed to Century Media Records is nothing but desolation: violent beatdown riffs (Nouri Yetgin/ Elmer Mauritts), crawling and psychotic drumming (Rene Gerbrandij), and disgusting gutturals and mids (Alan Grnja) that could rip your limbs from their very damn sockets. Turning their heads inward, the spine of the album is built upon the human struggles of mortality, grief, self-loathing, alongside the thorns of political corruption and the plague of social media. Produced and engineered by the band's own guitarist, Nouri Yetgin, alongside Dutch producer Roelof Klop- this damn thing is cinematically aggressive as it is extremely emotionally and personally charged. Everything ends, everything dies: and Distant shows us what it's like to fall into despair.
"NOTHING LEFT TO PATCH! NOTHING LEFT TO HATE BUT ME!"
Opening these wounds, "The World" is a cinematic deathcore intro. Bell dongs and growing bellows climb into down-tempo chugs with marching snares and cymbals. As it builds, it reaches its pinnacle of desolation with Grnja's gutturals snapping out "Fuck This World!" - slowing this 2-minute-long breakdown even fucking slower as it progresses, with intermissions of killswitch-like guitar effects, dissonant trills, and a bass tone that makes this intro track crumble the ground it walks on. Sonically, it's impending doom. Where there is doom, there is hate.
"Nothing Left to Hate" is our first taste of self-inflicted misery. Dripping with self-loathing, the track is guilty in its gritty, down-tuned chugs, whammy-driven dive bombs, and impressive drum kick and cymbal work. Vocally, Grnja contorts his voice from hardcore-like yells that distort into deep, socketed gutturals quickly within the same phrasing. Previously released as a single, the track leans against a mirror, cutting itself in the reflection of its own faults, broken promises, and who it has been and currently is. It's crushingly heavy, even as it scrapes itself with its own shards. "Into Despair" carries self-defeat into violent ideation. Carried by high, eerie drone echoes that provide the track a bleak yet catchy backdrop, the track doubles down on more aggressive aspects with two-stepping-worthy riffs and snare hits that amplify themselves into 'throwing elbows' territory. The centered breakdown of the self-titled track begs witness for razors kissing wrists, and is devastating as it takes you off your damn feet. "Spirit" featuring Tyler Beam (The Last Ten Seconds of Life) is as emotionally personal as it is sonically vengeful. Written about the murder of a family member of one of the band's members, leaving a space in the place where the face was. The space is filled with hateful bass, pinging itself off the track, with down-tempo chugs and cymbal chimes joining alongside it. Seething gutturals dominate this track, while a horror-film sample grabs the waste of human space and prepares to fucking skin them alive. The outro's breakdown is unworldly, with gutturals that are unnaturally the lowest I've heard in a band (I hear a lot; it's part of the job), before being stacked and collapsing with vicious highs and mids. The track is deeply personal, hateful, and righteously vengeful, and is one of my favorites off the record.
"Spirit" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
"This World Is Vague And Full Of Disdain"
Continuing the disdain pointed into the hearts of others, "Circle of Vultures" witnesses the greed and one-sided relationships with others. Punishing guitar and bass stomp alongside drums that catch each section with rapid-fire kicks and fills. Grnja showcases his vocal dynamics by piercing the track primarily with highs in its faster sections, and slugs it with monstrous gutturals in its slower and groovier counterparts. As the circles grow smaller, Distant's aggression grows tenfold. "The Shallow Gaze" featuring Darius Tehrani (Spite) furthers our paranoia and trust in the 'trauma stories' told by those beside us. Guitars and drums keep the neck snapping itself from ground to sky, while it revamps itself constantly through rapid cymbals, kicks, and chugs. Darius' signature hardcore-tampered mids and highs bleed through the middle point while the band bombards 'trauma imposters' before laying waste with stomping instrumentals that reset into neck snapping. The featured roster grows better with each passing one.
"Veil of Paranoia" backs this distrust of others with those that wish to see you fail, fall, and finish. This track is my favorite for the guitar and bass sections- with distant, echoing guitar drones in the background, violent chorded riffs, and fast-tempoed sweep picking. A lot of dynamic guitar choices were made on this one, and as a guitar player, it felt perfect and as aggressive as it was meant to be. "Desolation" observes power and human suffering shaking hands, critiquing political powers and the apathy they show toward their subordinates. The track is like a meat-grinder of piercing highs, mids, and seething gutturals. Down-tempoed guitars and drums march along before coming undone in tensely rapid succession.
"The Flesh Is A Lie: All Will Bleed. All Will Kneel."
"All Will Be (N)one" featuring Suffocation's Ricky Myers bulldozes its way in with quick-paced aggression and dissonant riffs, before dragging its groove-based chugs and drums across the concrete. The track reflects on the mortality of the human soul, finding the other side a place to be embraced- not resisted. Myers' has been a specialist in unearthly death metal vocals since the 90's, and the outro breakdown not only heavily crawls, but vocally engulfs itself. "Rat Torture" tackles the modern pandemic of social media obsession, where we equate reactions and likes with a means of validation and affection. The track is punishingly full of weight, with sinister guitar leads, blast beats, and a mix of hardcore mids, highs, and gutturals that erupt without compromise. "Flesh and Nails" featuring Kyle Medina of Bodysnatcher, finds angst and disgust in the breaking of trust and betrayal. Breakdowns as far as the eye can see, Medina's mids snapping at the track's ribcage, and Grnja's gutturals taking the bone to its temple. The atmosphere is charged with hostility, with droning bridges, cymbal attacking build ups, and each breakdown suffocating you more as it progresses.
"Flesh and Nails" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
"The Shared Grief" explores one of my favorite elements: stand-alone bass and drums sections. Introducing the track, Mauritts' bass tone sounds like he's strumming a piece of rebar, while Gerbrandij's snare echoes through rising synths. Grnja obliterates this track, digging deep into his internals and exposing wounds of suicidal ideation, the guilt of believing he is a failure to others, his family, and seeking a means to his own end. The greatest art is the one in which the artist opens themselves up and shows that the insides are not tidy- but hateful, full of grief, and self-lacerating. It's emotionally raw, but real. "Iron Knee" closes out the track in ambient guitar echoes that become thrall and doom-like, slow and claustrophobic cymbals and kicks, and Grnja showcasing impressive highs that almost reflect blackened deathcore. (The track is spoken in Slovak, and though I could translate the first sentence, referencing the 'dick-measuring' contests in the music scene, the rest was unfortunately difficult to translate. I do know it's a possible tongue-in-cheek reference to 'Iron Knee' being equated with the term 'irony'.)
Sonically punishing and emotionally raw, "Into Despair" is Distant's Deathcore response to the human condition of grief, paranoia, distrust, misanthropy, power corruption, and self-annihilation. Personally, I believe the more a piece of art makes you wince, the more effective it is. Not only is Distant's newest album cinematically dooming and heavy with downtempo chugs, groovy and rapid-fire drums, and dynamic hardcore and deathcore vocals that both scream angst and bellow disdain for all living things- it's thematically malicious. Turning from previous fiction and concept albums, the newest addition is rooted in reality that's unapologetically pissed, and yet longing. The most surprising is the in-house production with guitarist Nouri Yetgin, learning production and engineering on his own time and taking the reigns of the creative process. This led to a record that besides it's raw lyrical themes, is sonically punishing, creative, and encapsulating. "Into Despair" is a descent into grief and angst, and is another nail hammered into the cross of the genre.
Catch Distant on their headliner "Into Despair" US Tour this mid-November, supported by Heavy//Hitter, Katywentmissing, Torn Open, and Squelching here:
