I would sure love to meet the people who make the utterly dubious claim that death metal nowadays is anything along the lines of boring. The sound has its moments of stagnation, sure, but even a casual glance across the vast spectrum the sound boasts ought to be more than enough for most to realize just how much there is for us to still be enamored by. Even as the many different veins of death metal continue to propagate and spread out as time goes on, there are still those that manage to push the sound in ways most of us could never have imagined. Having done so already with its first effort, it’s now with its second album that Odious Spirit takes its sound a step further into the insanity that was laid forth in its debut.

Already, the bar for Odious Spirit was set incredibly high thanks to its debut album that was released two years ago. I vividly remember being blown away by what Odious Spirit brought to the table with its out-of-the-box approach to death-thrash that was quite unlike virtually everything else that I had experienced in the sound up to that point, and I’ve yet to come across any other band that managed to twist and contort the sound in any sort of a similar fashion. Thus, the prospect of a follow-up came with a simple but deadly question: could Odious Spirit successfully capture lightning in a bottle and expand upon its foundations? “The Sourceless Scourge” proves to us that the answer is yes, overwhelmingly so.

There is nothing safe nor conventional about this record as Odious Spirit once again hurls us into an unforgivingly chaotic realm that holds nothing back nor offers any shred of sanctity for those that unknowingly wander into its cacophonous depths. Technical in approach and unyielding in its nature, “The Sourceless Scourge” is a revolting image of us vomited back unto all that we are with Odious Spirit making damn sure that we feel everything that this audacious creation is. Unpredictable in how its thrash-riddled passages unfold to the gnawing death metal that is clawing at your flesh with your feeble spirit wholly incapable of fending off such a force to the experimental intricacies that bind the record together through an air of exceedingly weird yet mesmerizingly fresh songwriting, it’s around practically every turn of “The Sourceless Scourge” that Odious Spirit more than proves itself to be one of the most fascinating and interesting bands in the vast underground.

This is the sort of record that cult bands make a bold reputation out of. “The Sourceless Scourge” took not a single shortcut in attempting to bring its exceedingly unique vision into this reality with all of the hands that had a part in crafting this more than deserving of being extremely proud of what they’ve accomplished together. What we have here is a work that is as challenging to understand as a listener as it was challenging to put together as creators, making the record a true endeavor for everybody involved. Odious Spirit has not made an easy record to digest, but once you begin to understand the weird machinations of the work and what it holds within, then the marvels begin to unveil themselves in way that make you realize that we just do not get performances like this often.

“The Sourceless Scourge” releases on October 9th via I, Voidhanger Records!

LISTEN to an advanced track from “The Sourceless Scourge” on Bandcamp here.

FOLLOW Odious Spirit on Instagram here.

https://youtu.be/sbCfo9Pj9Kk?list=RDsbCfo9Pj9Kk