Album Review: Cognitive – Malevolent Thoughts Of A Hastened Extinction (Unique Leader)

Fusing together the best elements of death metal – groove, speed, brutality, technical prowess with forward thinking song writing, Cognitive have returned firing on all cylinders with their career defining explosive fourth album Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction, set for release via Unique Leader on July 16th, 2021.

A tornado of furious metal speed, Cognitive come out swinging on this brand-new album with all the inhuman power of a band possessed. Brutally heavy, brutally fast and brutally angry… this is Eniac and it pounds very, very hard.

After that it’s all ballads and harmonies of course.

Only joking. The Maw has Cognitive spitting blood and teeth, the aggression enough to give you a headache. Yet, there are moments throughout that make it so much more than just ball-busting noise. The techy sounding guitar jabs for example. Or how Arterial Red has some groove lying amongst the blistering combination of skin-shredding riffs, bone-crushing drums and scarring bass lines. The first third of the album is seriously killer stuff and it just keeps on getting better.

From the Depths’ blast beat drumming is feral-like, Oroborous is a short and angry burst of speed metal, To Feed the Worms showcases some classy technicality with Cognitive’s consistently impressive ability to wreck necks and Malevolent Thoughts has a pretty damn fine guitar solo amongst the disorderly metal chaos.

Gawd damn, this band do heavy very well. Laughably so, as the ferocity continues into the aptly titled Tearing Tendon from Bone. A track where you can hear the snap, crackle and pop of bodies as Cognitive assault them. The chugging groove of the guitars and low guttural vocals are particularly harsh here.

Though Destitute sees the band push things to the limit. The penultimate track is just short of 6 minutes long and offers up some genuine surprises. Such as the doomier tempo, the methodical approach to their chunky heaviness and some interesting use of melody. There’s a fair amount of detail in this track and it does stand out amongst everything else.

It could have been the finale but Cognitive instead choose to end things with one final beastly bout of fury and speed in the form of the track, Of a Hastened Extinction. A straight-forward closer, it’s just a final hammering on an album that hammers away constantly. A thrilling combination of extreme noise, Cognitive do this very well. It’s a punishing album but in the best way possible.

Cognitive – Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction Full Track Listing:

1. Eniac
2. The Maw
3. Arterial Red
4. From the Depths
5. Oroborous
6. To Feed the Worms
7. Malevolent Thoughts
8. Tearing Tendon from Bone
9. Destitute
10. Of a Hastened Extinction

Links

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp