Putting together the frenzied grindcore of Massachusetts’ Stagnater and the crust-ridden sludge of Rhode Island’s Cyttorak might seem like an odd concoction, but heard in full the pair’s vicious new split begins to make more sense. Cyttorak may be identifiable as a sludge act but they’ve always leaned towards speedier tempos than others in the genre, and have even dubbed their sound “slowerviolence” in the past, drawing attention to their powerviolence influences.
This time around, they’re seemingly faster than ever, backed up by some absolutely monstrous riffs on opener ‘Centennial Vampiric Resurrection’, but their pulverising sludginess still acts as a great tension-build on ‘Tremble Before Me’ before the all-out bedlam of Stagnater takes over on the split’s latter half. Stagnater’s delightfully filthy tone and frenzied riffs are almost sadistic in their brutality here, initially carrying the torch from Cyttorak by building slowly on ‘Disgrace In Massive Proportion’, before coming at you like a ten-tonne truck with no brakes on ‘Forging The Dreadnought’ and closer ‘Infestation And Alchemy’.
Check out the full split below a full week ahead of official release, and be sure to support the bands by pre-ordering the digital or cassette edition before the split drops on 4th September.
The Cyttorak/Stagnater split is out 4th September. Pre-order here.
Words: George Parr
