Band:	Blattaria
Album:	Life Is A Disease
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	October 2019

01. Disgusting Planet
02. Life Is A Disease
03. Downwards
04. Visions Of My Corpse
05. Swarm

Always keep a keen eye on links shared in the Metal Storm Shoutbox, a haven for awesome jamz awaiting discovery.


Indeed, Blattaria first popped up on my radar through a share of the project's impressive debut album in our lovely SB. I was pretty impressed and wanted more, so when Life Is A Disease came a'knocking this year, I warmly opened the door. For the unfamiliar, Blattaria is the one man effort of a Mr. Manuel Garcia, and is basically made for those who enjoy that dissonant, quasi psychedelic take on black metal. Fans of stuff like Nachtmystium, Arizmenda, Blut Aus Nord, and even Portal should be right at home with Life Is A Disease. Herein lies a stimulating, spine tingling package replete with wobbly, hazy riffs that seem to circle all around each other, a pleasantly audible bass that stays quiet but present in the mix, and some truly excellent drumming that holds all the pieces together. Opener "Disgusting Planet" establishes an approach that is more or less followed throughout: dense, swirly, and all around hypnotizing.


If there's one element of the music on Life Is A Disease that's the real icing on the cake though, it's the vocals. Here is where Garcia really shows his versatility, as he alternates between growls, shrieks, a yelling approach, and deeeeeeep howls that don't sound too far off from what you'd hear out of Wrest in Leviathan. "Visions Of My Corpse" is perhaps the best example of this guy's ability to not only switch between these various approaches with ease, but also to utilize them to accentuate different moods of the songwriting. The shrieks tend to come out during the more frantic, upbeat moments, and the howls during the slower that embrace more of the psychedelic influence.


Repeated listens to Life Is A Disease only cement the awe of it having been crafted entirely by a single person. Raw and abrasive as well as eerie and ritualistic, the album is wonderfully paced and structured in a way in which all aspects of the music get their time to shine, creating the impression of each being of equal importance in the final recipe. With an overall spooky vibe and strangely catchy songwriting, this album is a late year highlight that fans of more ambient and psychedelic-influenced black metal would be wise to not allow to fade into obscurity.