The newest mini-LP from Grave Miasma is, in a word, dense. Its abstruseness may put some listeners off, as the band move even deeper into atonal, inharmonious territory here, but seasoned fans will revel in the grime of this new material. Their past releases have earned the band both fans and respect, including plenty of spots on year-end lists, and while Endless Pilgrimage may not find its way to quite as many ears as their debut — EPs and mini-albums tend to fly under the radar — those unafraid to dig into more avant-garde and unorthodox noises would do well to seek this out.
On opener "Yama Transforms to the Afterlife," and particularly on the seven-minute, extra-dimensional journey of "Utterance of the Foulest Spirit," the band combine damp and doomy arpeggios, screeching whammy dives and dissonant sequences that will either be wholly rewarding or inaccessible to fans. It's not that every song on here is pushed to the limit of atonality — "Purgative Circumvolution" is perhaps the most straightforward, with a technical, riding grind that crosses into Immolation territory — but it's an exception in an album that prioritizes the experimental.
Grave Miasma are uncompromisingly ambitious not only in terms of their songcraft, but also in approach; by opting for a pan-analog recording method, they've managed to explore a lot of different terrain, with shifting speeds and moods that might just make you feel frail and insignificant under the weight of the cosmos.
(Profound Lore)On opener "Yama Transforms to the Afterlife," and particularly on the seven-minute, extra-dimensional journey of "Utterance of the Foulest Spirit," the band combine damp and doomy arpeggios, screeching whammy dives and dissonant sequences that will either be wholly rewarding or inaccessible to fans. It's not that every song on here is pushed to the limit of atonality — "Purgative Circumvolution" is perhaps the most straightforward, with a technical, riding grind that crosses into Immolation territory — but it's an exception in an album that prioritizes the experimental.
Grave Miasma are uncompromisingly ambitious not only in terms of their songcraft, but also in approach; by opting for a pan-analog recording method, they've managed to explore a lot of different terrain, with shifting speeds and moods that might just make you feel frail and insignificant under the weight of the cosmos.