Band:	Slimelord
Album:	Chytridiomycosis Relinquished
Style:	Death doom metal
Release date:	March 2024

01. The Beckoning Bell
02. Gut-Brain Axis
03. Splayed Mudscape
04. Batrachomorpha Resurrections Chamber
05. The Hissing Moor
06. Tidal Slaughtermarsh
07. Heroic Demise

Just because you're knees-deep in the swamps of death doom doesn't mean you can't experiment with progressive and technical compositions. Slimelord show how it's done.

UK band Slimelord’s previous three EPs showcased slow, atmospheric, and stifling death doom. As the years passed, they increasingly explored more progressive musicianship. Now, their debut full-length album Chytridiomycosis Relinquished has fully embraced that approach of off-kilter, chaotic, and intricate compositions. They've perfected their abilities to craft a truly overwhelming atmosphere, as all instruments work together to form a dense collage of unnerving melodies, ferocious aggression, and crazed riffs. The chthonic vocals, alternating between blackened rasps and guttural growls, provide a fittingly intimidating narration for this aural descent into madness.

The album starts off with two very worthy opening tracks, “The Beckoning Bell” and “Gut-Brain Axis”, which essentially provide an overview of the dominating sounds and styles of Slimelord’s approach. While the first track is overall more aggressive and pummeling, the second track shows more unnerving melody, kicking off with some exquisitely eerie lead guitar playing. This debut album is best characterized by the thickly woven, multi-layered musicianship, which demonstrates both the band's technical ability and their willingness to develop their death doom sound by dabbling in a more progressive death metal direction. Unfortunately, the complex compositions mixed with more abrasive brutal death metal parts can sometimes be a bit too overwhelming, making the song “Splayed Mudscape”, for instance, hard to follow and, therefore, rather unsatisfying.

Chytridiomycosis Relinquished culminates in “Tidal Slaughtermarsh”, which represents the epitome of Slimelord’s style on this album, for better or worse. The insane maelstrom of tech/prog death metal on display is an impressive feat, yet it probably won't be for every listener or, at the very least, it will take several attentive listens to fully digest. I personally found the most enjoyment with the moments of mid-tempo doom and unnerving tension on songs like “Batrachomorpha Resurrections Chamber” and “The Hissing Moor”, rather than the full-throttle pummeling of “Tidal Slaughtermarsh”. Yet, I can't deny that the range of musical complexity that Slimelord depict on this debut record is remarkable. In conclusion, for those listeners who enjoy wading through intricate layers of progressive and technical musicianship to listen to the suffocating sounds of crushing death and doom, it's time you paid the Slimelord a visit.