My relationship with the exceedingly dark realm of death/doom has only been getting exponentially better over the last few years with a glorious streak presenting itself to me month after month much to my delight. It’s a trend that I’ve been having way too much fun with, and it has yet to end even after tonight’s excursion. The style can often feel too clean for some peoples’ liking, but it’s with this ferocious effort that we get not one but two unyielding acts that put the utter nastiness back into death/doom.

Just looking at that cover art gives you an inkling of the sheer dirt-laced blood that’s going to be spraying throughout the entirety of this creation. This is that ugly death/doom that is meant to bring cataclysm upon all that is good in this world that I’d normally expect from the likes of Gateway, but now I have two new names that I can compare any further attempts to for it’s from both Cryptic Brood and Night Hag that we get unrelenting death/doom that is constantly stabbing in the right spot for maximum effect. It’s not a clean knife either with a clear serration pattern or shiny metal, but, rather, a rusty shiv that causes more damage coming out than going in, and that’s just the beginning of the terror that’s inflicted throughout “Swollen With Rancid Phlegm”! Both acts here provide us with a menacing display of raw power that cannot be denied with Cryptic Brood’s sound relying more on venomous riffage that easily bleeds into a slower march that leaves on scorched earth behind it with bloodied pikes pointed forward at all times, but it’s then that Night Hag takes the field to deliver us an equally visceral experience that definitely leans more towards the doom side, especially in their final offering, but just as much raw nastiness that brings a severe punch that never once lets up for any amount of time that they have the stage. Each performance that we’re given throughout “Swollen With Rancid Phlegm” is so much of the opposite of what many of us expect from the land of death/doom nowadays to the point that it’s almost shocking to see something so overwhelmingly aggressive as we Cryptic Brood and Night Hag bring forth here, but any of us would be remiss not to mention just how potent both acts are as each track is a brutal assault like very few other works of the style that we get in the current climate. And it’s after falling into the nightmarish bogs filled with blood, fog, and curdling screams multiple times that I can still only barely grasp what has been done throughout “Swollen With Rancid Phlegm” in all of its undeniable depravity, and I fucking love it!

Works like this don’t come around often enough for they show us a side to this beloved style that very few others dare to attempt with even less smithing it in their own vision that’s more than worthy of investigation time after time, and it’s beyond clear that both Cryptic Brood and Night Hag are capable of that feat with what they’ve accomplished on this split. “Swollen With Rancid Phlegm” is not just an unyielding display of horrifying power, but seven testaments to the talent behind both of these acts to the point where I’m keeping two firm eyes on each of them because when they release new material I will be absolutely furious if I find myself out of the loop for even a second. And I cannot suggest strongly enough that you join me in such patient vigilance.

LISTEN to “Swollen With Rancid Phlegm” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Cryptic Brood on Facebook here.

LIKE Night Hag on Facebook here.