Ingested are one of the hardest working bands in the whole of metal, producing an impressive amount of music, particularly over the last few years. Their previous album Ashes Lie Still was extremely well received and with the truly ambitious The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams, the band aim to take another huge step forward. In a recent interview, vocalist Jason Evans told Hotel Hobbies just how long the band have been sitting on the new music. “I'm really excited. I'm super proud of this album. This album's been recorded for nearly a year and a half because we work so far ahead. We recorded this album four weeks after we released the last album in 2022. We have been keeping it secret for so long. It's exciting that it's about to come out and people are gonna finally get to hear it.”
As soon as opening track - Paragon of Purity - begins, it is easy to see why Evans is so enthusiastic about the album’s imminent release. Sledgehammer riffs and intimidating, powerful drums attack from the first moment and the song only grows with emphatic potency across its length. Both a mighty panegyric to the support given to the band by those closest too them and a dark examination of life in a band and time on the road, Paragon of Purity displays an intriguing dichotomy in its approach. It is lyrically and musically brutal in some sections (as are the visuals in the accompanying video) but also passionately paying tribute to loved ones. When our hearts have suffered / You are a paragon of purity / We’ve shattered bones across the earth / Shedding dead skin to make this work. A bone-shattering start to the album, Paragon of Purity sets a high standard from the outset.
Turbulent and savage Ingested’s music may be, but on the new album there is a clear lyrical intention to find the best in the different challenges that life brings. “Ashes was constructed in the COVID period, and the mood of that album definitely reflects that time. With Tide, we wanted to bring the energy up a bit. As much as we like what we did with Ashes, its depressive tone isn’t something we wanted to continue to explore quite as much. There are definitely some dark moments on Tide, but for the most part, we took a more upbeat approach to the songs this time round.” Second track Endless Machine continues with an exhilarating barrage of crunching riffs, exuberantly defiant blast beats and truculent vocals from Evans. Below the boot of a dynasty / Your prestige means nothing to me / I will forge my own destiny / The rule of three / Cementing our legacy. Lyrically, Endless Machine deals with the theme of being under valued for years in meaningless employment before finding the courage to leave and work for yourself in a career you love.
Where No Light Shines (which begins with high eerie notes) takes the tempo down in places but loses none of the urgent fury of the previous tracks. Along with Expect to Fail (featuring Josh Middleton of Sylosis), Where No Light Shines is about being deceived and feeling side-lined. “I wrote them in the same day, basically,” Jason says. “And they’re both about the same kind of thing - that feeling of being made to feel small and weak by people you should be able to trust. And being made to feel like less than nothing, as though you’ve been put in a place ‘where no light shines’ and you shouldn't really even try to succeed. You should only ‘expect to fail.’ These songs are about biting back at your detractors and proving they're full of shit.” Both tracks are vicious, sanguinary assaults on the senses while displaying the technical expertise that Ingested have worked so hard to develop across their career. They are bold retorts to those who questioned the band’s abilities during their formative years. I'm still standing / Cos I'm expected to fail / I’m here in spite of you.
On Ashes Lie Still, Ingested proved they are becoming increasingly adept using space and dynamic shifts and the occasionally use of clean vocals to further emphasise the unforgivingly merciless aspects of their music. “If we added cleans or melodic motifs, it’s because the song called for it,” says the band. “We certainly explored more melody on Ashes - a few clean vocals here and there - so once again, we weren’t afraid to delve into that territory. Ultimately, we’ll do whatever best serves the song, and if that’s a full clean vocal section, then so be it.” Starve The Fire gives brief glimmers of clean vocals in the chorus and Numinous, an instrumental which signals the start of the second half of the album, begins with almost two minutes of the most elegantly exquisite music Ingested have ever recorded. Just as the listener is being drawn into the hypnotic melodic progressions, Lyn Jeffs’ drums crash down with devastating hammer blows of which Thor himself would be proud. During the final section of Numinous, the band faultlessly combine the brutal and the beautiful as a soaring and emotionally uplifting guitar solo proves just how far the trio’s songwriting has developed – it is both ruthless and magnificent.
Kingdoms of Sand (which pummels with the force of a persistent juggernaut), In Nothingness (featuring vocal contributions from Chimaira’s Mark Hunter a singer the band have long admired) and Pantheon return us to the pitiless, draconic zeal of Ingested’s heaviest moments, the last of these written when Jason Evans was suffering from a heavy bout of imposter syndrome. “We've done all these big tours with all these huge bands - bands we grew up idolizing - and now we're rubbing shoulders with giants, so to speak. That song is about questioning if you belong if you're good enough. Am I able to keep up with my peers? Can I fill the shoes of my idols once they are gone? Do I deserve it?” On the evidence found on The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams, Ingested deserve every bit of success that comes their way. Pantheon, frenzied and ebullient even by the standards of the whole album, is a bludgeoning behemoth both lyrically and musically. The ceiling cracks again / The thought of all I could become / Behold the pantheon / The steps we climb are by design / I walk on the path between worlds.
Nowhere is Ingested’s willingness to experiment more apparent than on final track, the simply glorious A Path Once Lost, a seven-minute multi-part odyssey. Visiting every musical aspect that Ingested have to offer, it delves into the human experience of facing your flaws, dealing with the consequences of our actions and a search for guidance. I know, how it feels / Temptation strays me further / I’ve shown, what it steal / Begging for a saviour / Drifting still I'm waiting / Deep down I am suffocating. Beginning with gentle yet ominous clean vocals and darkly melodic guitar, the track is a masterpiece in patience, building steadily over its first two and half minutes until a dramatic split-second change in tempo, dynamics and vocal delivery that brings everything into sharp focus. You deal your hand while I’m dealing with death / Not a single moment’s thought before I’ve taken a breath. Over the course of the remaining four and a half minutes, the band blend abrupt rhythm shifts with ardent, blistering riffs and an accomplished combination of clean and growling, guttural vocals. For those who have enjoyed the variation that has developed in the band’s songwriting, it is a contender for the most completely all-encompassing, consummate track the band have ever written.
When Hotel Hobbies interviewed Jason Evans he commented, “I know it's a cliché. Every band always says their newest material is their best but I genuinely believe that this is the best album we've ever written. I'm probably coming from a place of bias, but I think it's the best modern death metal album of recent times. I really do.” Whether fans award The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams that accolade will be down to the individual listener but what cannot be denied is that Ingested have made an album that simply cannot be ignored. “I don’t think much change has taken place, in all honesty,” they say. “We are the same three lads making music. We’ve just gotten better at it as the years have ticked by.” At times ferocious and feral, at others exquisite and brooding, every drumbeat, every chord and every syllable uttered has been thoughtfully planned and wonderfully executed. The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams is the best album of Ingested’s career and will catapult their reputation even higher. Be prepared…
The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams is released on 5th April 2024 on Metal Blade Records
Links:
