Album Review: Ara – Jurisprudence (Self Released)

Every so often, a band comes along that generates praise and attention for all the right reasons, and not always due to having a label or heavy marketing power behind them. Wisconsin-based dissonant technical death metal outfit Ara has already achieved that with their completely independently released 2012 EP, The Blessed Sleep, and 2014 debut album, Devourer of Worlds. The group generated massive buzz purely off the strength of their innovative music then.

Now they are ready to return in 2020 with a worthy follow up in the form of Jurisprudence. For those new to the group, 3/4th’s of Ara play in the sludge metal/post-rock band Northless who are signed to Gilead Media. Jurisprudence will be the group’s second full-length and is set for release on Friday, May 15th 2020.

Grim from the moment Ashen explodes, Ara ply a furiously heavy death metal trade. One that involves hammering solid nails of steel into skulls with the guitars and drums the instruments of pain.

Unrelenting noise and unrelenting suffering, Mythos picks up the broken pieces of the mind and sets about pulverising them some more. The brief drop in volume at the end offers no comfort, especially as the tempo is right back up for Cytokine Storm. The broken shifts of guitar riffing something to behold and backed up by the eye-watering and stomach-clenching title track.

It’s non-stop carnage even when it’s as short as Excursus Praestinguo or as long as Pounded into the Multiverse. You think you know brutality in musical form? You know nothing until you’ve heard Ara.

Ara – Jurisprudence Full Track Listing:

1. Ashen
2. Mythos
3. Cytokine Storm
4. Etymologicide
5. Jurisprudence
6. Excursus Praestinguo
7. Abhortion
8. Pounded Into the Multiverse

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook