Bastard Mycosis - The Perpetual Harvest (Crypt of the Wizard)

A chunky death metal (DM) groove can be a gateway to stank-faced ecstasy. There’s nothing quite like that moment when the drums lasso a colossal, stampeding riff: heart rates skyrocket, spines quake, and the tiny caverns of the reptilian brain flood with dopamine.  Bastard Mycosis, a new side-project from the Brits who brought us Vaticinal Rites and Vacuous, understand the visceral power of a scuzzed-out DM strut, and wield it well on The Perpetual Harvest.  The gloopy and waterlogged mix, the shambling guitars, and the zombified bullfrog croaks suggest that the band are more than just familiar with Demilich’s swamp hut hoodoo, but the duo are smart enough to know that it takes more than just tweaking the tried-and-true Finndeath formula to captivate a hardened DM fanatic.  Splattering in some curdled Danish “deathgore” a la Sequestrum or Undergang certainly doesn’t hurt, but it’s the lysergic production job by the wizards at Holy Mountain that really sets this EP apart.  In less capable hands, the queasy reverb and moth-eaten fuzz would congeal into a formless gray mush, but the mixing here is nonpartisan in a way that stratifies the frequency spectrum like a gasoline rainbow sliding across a mud puddle.  The vocal production is especially dialed in to maximize the squalid psychedelia.  Gurgling forth from deep within the tangled knots of guitars and drums like the disembodied voice of a sentient swamp, Harkin's mucoid death-rattle provides a sense of cavernous, three-dimensional space that is often missing from DM this polluted and smudged.  The only downside is that it’s all over too soon. As the last note of “Rancid Cocoon of Zymolysis” fades into the bilious mists of reverb, it’s hard to fight the urge to begin the disgusting dance all over again.