Album Review: Ingested – Where Only Gods May Tread

Something You Ate?

During this lockdown those working from home have had the liberty to take limitless trips to the fridge and snack cupboard and ingest until their hearts content. Well let me put a stop to that right this minute as I offer you the new Ingested album on a silver platter. 

I love drums, they’re my favourite instrument, and the moment you press play, they spring into action, the effects are immediate and urgent. Lyn Jeffs is responsible for this onslaught, deafening but not defeating. A more accomplished and dynamic drummer I couldn’t wish for. This record my friends is a hefty chunk of death metal that joins the list of impressive releases that have graced this quite disgraceful 2020, and what’s really exciting is that these guys are home grown. 

There are ‘No Half Measures’ from this Mancunian mobsters, robust in their outlook and calling out all the frauds and fuck ups.  My friends you are in for a real treat here as we have three astounding featured artists, the first is Vincent Bennett (The Acacia Strain) on ‘The Burden Of Our Failures’ which is a sizeable slab of concrete that is dropped on your head from a great height. There is a slight chance to breathe at 2.42 until a mean and moody riff takes over at 3.28, accentuating the brooding atmosphere. The beatific ‘Dead Seraphic Forms’ offers a Middle Eastern Turkish delight style riff at 1.21 which simmers in the background for the duration. Our lives are saturated with inveterate lies and hatred stoked further by inaccuracies in the media, causing divisions that are difficult to address and eradicate. The second guest is Kirk Windstein(Crowbar, Down) and he applies his dulcet tones to the hauntingly good ‘Another Breath’ with its grim and dimly lit video, creepy Claymation I ask? Hold my goblet of festering innards say Ingested.  I’ll say this and then run at speed in the opposite direction, it reminds me of a Tool video. The final guest Matt Honeycutt (Kublai Khan TX) taking a chance on the ‘Black Pill’, a twist your mind in an inhuman fashion number, celebrating or commiserating the macabre medicine.

We are ‘Forsaken In Desolation’ and we plead ‘please release me, undefeated, are you holding the key?’ It’s been a  joyful ride amongst this most joyless of times, our friends here have drawn from this destructive scenario and offer instruction into our futures. Join hands ladies and gents and prepare to take a ‘Leap Of The Faithless’, what doesn’t kill you, may be the way forward. A nine- minute musical roller coaster  which exacerbates and rejuvenates, and we acknowledge  ‘the demon the devil didn’t want’. At 6.30 take time to consider and reflect on our situation.

Ten commandments, set in stone, from God on high, watch your step.

Interested in Ingested? Come and have a seat at my table.

Azra Pathan

Ingested – Where Only Gods May Tread out now via Unique Leader Records