EP Review – Call of the Void by Ingested (Unique Leaders Records)

Just a year after dropping their album, The Level Above Human, Ingested are back with a new EP called The Call of the Void.

The deathcore, blackened death, slam quintet are absolutely at the top of their game right now. The Manchester based band spent most of the months after the release of The Level Above Human on tour, including headlining dates across Canada. Now, less than a year later we already have new music.

Speaking to Exclaim, drummer Lyn Jeffs states – “Our new EP isn’t just material for material’s sake or a stopgap between albums, this is something we feel is an important evolution in our style and is a piece of music that will again transcend the genre of slam. We feel immensely proud of the Call of the Void EP, it is something we have worked hard on to develop while on the road so much of 2018. It is darker, riff-heavy and atmospheric but still has all the ingredients that make Ingested what it is”.

Ingested formed back in 2006 and are still formed of the same 5 members. Jason Evans on lead vocals with Sam Yates and Sean Hynes on guitars and backing vocals. Brad Fuller is on the bass and Lyn Jeffs is the drummer.

Call of the Void is 4 tracks, or 17 minutes of visceral blackened death metal. From the first few seconds of opener Mouth of the Abyss, you get a taste of what is to come with deep tuned guitars and powerful drums. Vocals come in early with deep menacing growls. The Vocal style switches quite a bit, utilising different pitches and layers to add depth. I like the structure of this song too. It starts each verse with a slow, creeping style but slowly adds more drums, more guitars and more vocals until you are at the end of the verse in full on death metal speed. It then drops off back to the slower, doom like groove before starting to creep up again.

Ingested show a great mix of styles going for more of an atmospheric start to Eternal Kingdoms Part I. Clear ringing acoustic melody lulls you in with its sorrowful beauty before viciously shaking you back to life with an explosion of black metal. Vicious drums and layered, deathly vocals slap you back to alert in an instant. The ferocity drops back, barely a step, and the guitars jump forward a bit playing a punching riff with drawn out notes before bang, back to the acoustic melody with a little extra layers of melody added. Being half way through the song, I was determined not to get sucked in but I failed.

The melody is perfect so you can’t help but get a little lost in it, leaving you totally unprepared for the explosion of blackness that follows. It’s a brilliant song, made even better by the drums insanely good solo that pops in nearing the end. Amazing song. Eternal Kingdoms Part 2 follows, much to my delight having loved Part 1 so much. It isn’t a song of its own though. Not really. It is more like an extended outro for Part 1. Two mins of beautifully played melody with a tinges of sadness. It’s really good though I do think it would have worked just as well, maybe better, combing the songs and just having an Eternal Kingdoms. The split into two tracks feels unnecessary. Not that I’m complaining. Whether 1track or  two, it’s still brilliant.

The EP ends with The Empyrean Creed, taking us away from the atmospheric side and back to a more visceral sound. It’s the longest track on Call of the Void at near 6 minutes and hits hard with crunching guitars and rhythmic drums. Vocals keep up the multi-layered growled style as we move through different sections that all hit you with lashings of bass and rhythmic drums. There is a load of groove to this track, moving from a deathcore style into a more traditional death metal style in different parts of the verses.

Call of the Void is a cracking EP with 4 amazing tracks. The best of it is sandwiched in the middle of the opener and closer though. Both parts of Eternal Kingdoms, together or separate are phenomenal. Two absolutely mind blowingly good black metal tracks that deserve to be heard. There are lots of slightly different styles on show across the whole 4 tracks which keeps you on your toes though they all work perfectly together showing Ingested as absolute masters of their ever expanding sound.

Call of the Void is available now on all the usual streaming platforms. You can grab a copy from Bandcamp, here.

Links

Ingested on Facebook – Ingested on Twitter – Ingested on Instagram – Unique Leader Records