Denver, Colorado-based Death Metal group Of Feather and Bone are no strangers to the underground, but what started out as a somewhat Crust-influenced Grind unit transformed themselves into a more Death Metal focused affair with their Profound Lore debut, Bestial Hymns of Perversion which came out in 2018. They are now set to release the follow up to that record with Sulfuric Disintegration, also on Profound Lore, and they are doubling down on their subterranean Death Metal evolution.
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Now, it’s not unusual for any Death Metal band to know their way around a blast beat or two, but Of Feather and Bone seem to have an obsession with paint-peeling velocities shared by few others. Album opener “Regurgitated Communion” is nothing short of a mission statement, laying the framework for the relentless vicious attack that follows. The thirty-second haunting intro is as close to a breather as this album provides, and it is obliterated by the high-speed assault that follows. There are bits of Morbid Angel here, with some Slayer on cocaine there, all with heaping spoonfuls of Angelcorpse all around. This isn’t an indecipherable blur though if there’s anything the aforementioned acts were good at, it was throwing in plenty of hooks within the barrage, and it is a lesson Of Feather and Bone took to heart.
If you pay close attention to the next song, “Entropic Self Immolation”, it is officially slower but goddamn it doesn’t feel like it, and there is no lack of blast beats scattered throughout. And take notice of the Kerry King meets Trey Azagthoth guitar solo. It’s short but perfect, whammy bar divebomb and all. For an album that’s already blazing fast, the drum intro to “Noctemania” raises the bar even further, but then settles into a bit of Doom/Death, not that they don’t find their way back to lightspeed quickly.
Nothing on “Sulfuric Disintegration” ever lets up, it is a merciless and relentless album. The closing song, “Baptized in Boiling Phlegm” does eventually find a mid-paced riff that sounds devastating nonetheless, like a general looking over the scorched earth his armies have left behind. The closing squalls of feedback are reminiscent of the introduction to Morbid Angel’s “Blessed Are the Sick”, as if this album was constructed to flow into that one.
At thirty minutes, “Sulfuric Disintegration” is the perfect length. There’s only so much even the most jaded Metal listener can take in one sitting. Most albums that attempt such a speed-laden assault end up being one-dimensional, but not this one. With just the right amount of hooks and songwriting prowess, Of Feather and Bone have constructed a work that bears continuous and repeated listening. It is physically violent and unyielding, but utterly memorable and captivating.
