Back in 2022, Prophetic Suffering‘s debut demo tape made heads turn with its unusual combination of war metal, dissonant black metal and brutal, grinding death metal. It’s unique mixture of styles really got us thinking about what the band would and could accomplish across a full-length format, and that time has finally come to find out. Blast your synapses into a pulp through this exclusive advance stream of the band’s official debut album Rivalry of Thyself dropping tomorrow via Sentient Ruin:
Every promise made on the demo was kept, and then some. Harnessing complete carnage at the absolute height of death metal’s most perverse instincts, Prophetic Suffering bring us an abomination swathed in destruction and shrouded in dissonance. Coming from Edmonton, the Canadian war metal influences are an inevitable foundational centerpiece to the band’s bludgeoning sound, but it far from ends there. Modern dissonant black metal and tech-death excoriations have been sapiently worked into its monstrous canvas as well, giving the entire work a machine-like, alien, and otherworldly aura that feels grandiose and technically imposing. The final piece of this bestial puzzle is the band’s obvious USDM influence, particularly that of the most gruesome bloodline that started with Cannibal Corpse and then evolved into monstrosities like Sadistic Intent, Cyanide, Angel Corpse and Drawn and Quartered, or of those strains of death metal which made brutality a concept ever so distant from horror movies and fiction, and dwelling instead more within a realm of darkness, esotericism, and evil.
Hard to imagine or think of another band that has conceived such a peculiar and unique audial assault made in equal measure of dissonant, technically intricate guitars riding a primitive, grinding backbone of hammer blasts borrowed directly from the cult of Archgoat or Black Witchery, but there you have it, the marvel created by Prophetic Suffering, with a cherry on top in the form of a dual vocal attack ranging from high pitched skull-piercing screams to repulsive death grunts bordering almost on slam-reminiscent pig squeals.
Overall and Rivalry of Thyself is an utter abomination. A magnificent, bludgeoning death metal monstrosity spread across a shapeshifting canvas of animalistic, primal brutality, dark and dense atmospheres shrouded in dissonance, and a commanding technicality of absolute dominance.
Rivalry of Thyself officially releases tomorrow Friday May 9 2025 via Sentient Ruin worldwide (get it HERE or HERE).
