Album Review: Wallowing – Earth Reaper (Church Road Records)

One of the UK underground’s most fascinating groups, the sci-fi extreme metal quintet, Wallowing, return with their new album Earth Reaper, to be released 28th April via Church Road Records.

Continuing the themes on Wallowing’s acclaimed debut Planet Loss (2019), Earth Reaper is their second concept album and sees the listener diving into a bleak universe plagued by evil, oppressive rule. A mysterious outcast living amongst a group of unlikely and unearthly beings. Yearning to uncover the truth behind her own existence, the outcast makes a risky attempt to break free from her company and face the reality of the dead planet they reside on.

With limitless imagination and ambition, Wallowing have already made a name for themselves with the exceptional Planet Loss. An album that immersed the listener in their dystopian sci-fi world and delivered a concept that embodied their extreme metal sound. Now, they’re back and somehow, they’ve bettered what they did in 2019.

Earth Reaper is an astonishing release that grows and grows in grandeur as it goes on. Leading to a finale, the title track, that might very well be the most creative thing Wallowing ever release. Effectively an album of two halves, The first six tracks of the album serve as a prologue to the title track. A gargantuan track that is around 22 minutes long.

Before that track is discussed though, first we have a selection of imaginative, sci-fi infused, atmospheric heaviness to enjoy. Where brutish death and doom combine, evolve, and encapsulate the stories that Wallowing are sharing. Each mesmerising volume broken up by snippets of mysterious and malicious ambience.

Sci-fi infused metal often leans towards a more progressive and technical side of heaviness, so it is extremely refreshing to hear these ideas captured in such an extreme style. The Wallowing sound is nightmarish, an experience from which there is no waking up from. Each track grows in remarkable stature and refuses to concede when it comes to delivering intensity. Suffocating, surreal, and savage, in any other circumstance, the unmigated heaviness would cancel out any aspect of storytelling and world-building, but it is such an intrinsic part of Wallowing, it fits together seamlessly.

Which brings things to the title track and the apex of everything Wallowing currently is. A track that is gobsmacking in its sonic detail, eye-widening in its conceptual horror-laden creativity, and body-trembling in its unrestrained brutishness. It will leave you aghast at the sheer bullishness of Wallowing to not just attempt something so grand but deliver on the promises of being thoroughly unforgettable.

If Planet Loss was the release that put Wallowing on the map, Earth Reaper is the release that blasts them into the stratosphere.

Wallowing – Earth Reaper Track Listing:

1. A World Weeping
2. FLESH AND STEEL
3. Echoes Of The Outer Reaches
4. CRIES OF ESTIMA
5. Obliteration
6. CYBORG ASPHYXIATION
7. EARTH REAPER

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