Album Review: Shrykull – Beyond Subconscious Realms (Road to Masochist / Eggy Tapes)

It has been six years since Nottingham duo Shrykull released their caustic, self-titled debut album, but finally the second chapter of their tale has been written…a cataloguing of the horrors of both inner and outer space, a journal of time spent ‘Beyond Subconscious Realms’. It is out on November 8th, 2024, via Road to Masochist / Eggy Tapes.

Calling this ‘heavy’ simply doesn’t do it justice and with a startling level of filthy sludge, Shrykull start this album off in ferocious fashion. The brutality of the first minute of Blockading the Kingdom of Infinite Space is only matched by the savagery that follows as it transforms into a chaotic combo of black and death metal.

It is just a taste of the carnage to come and across the remaining eight tracks, Shrykull create a visceral and dynamic soundscape rooted in the most extreme of extreme. Picking up the pace to an even more frenetic place with Id Hammer as a bit of thrashy goodness is unleashed. Then unearthing horrors liable to drive a person mad with the salacious intensity of Phobos Anomaly. Before unleashing a torrent of classic death metal abuse with the lovable Gateway of Nightmares.

Lovable if you have a taste for death and destruction as that is what Shrykull offer in consistent fashion across the length and breadth of this album.

It is the appealing factor of a record that is ugly and harsh to the ears, but is layered with exciting and clever nuances that make it so much more than just another extreme listen. Almost anyone can go hard and heavy, but to make that appealing and interesting across multiple tracks is where the real talent lies.

Talent that this two-piece has in abundance and talent that continues to emerge with heavy aplomb on the likes of Astral Mutiny, A Glint in the Basilisk’s Eye, and Chaotic Disforms of Cosmic Misalignment. The latter of which is a highlight of the record thanks to the addictiveness of its sickening death metal ways.

Right up to the end, Shrykull continue to push and pull the mind in torturous directions too. Offering up a methodical example of vehemence with the penultimate track, Impenetrable Mist and something that crosses into doom and black territories with the finale of Collective Fugue State. Even at this late stage of the album, Shrykull create something memorable, even if the horrifying nature of the record as a whole is what the psyche is left with afterwards.

Shrykull – Beyond Subconscious Realms Track Listing:

1. Blockading the Kingdom of Infinite Space
2. Id Hammer
3. Phobos Anomaly
4. Gateway of Nightmares
5. Astral Mutiny
6. A Glint in the Basilisk’s Eye
7. Chaotic Disforms of Cosmic Misalignment
8. Impenetrable Mist
9. Collective Fugue State

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Road to Masochist | Eggy Tapes