I’d not come across COMESS before, but the Louisville-based hardcore mob certainly demand attention. The band’s first record, ‘Botched and flailed’ was tracked by Tom Curtis and mastered by the increasingly ubiquitous Brad Boatright (Nails, Vallenfyre), and the wisdom of the band’s choices immediately becomes clear as the first track roars out of the gates. Crystal clear and yet unassailably heavy, they’ve achieved the perfect balance for a set of songs that will leave the listener shaken at the ferocity of their delivery.
The first thought that will go through your shattered mind when ‘Vorkuta’ physically assaults you is that ‘botched and flailed’ could not be a more apt title. At just over a minute, the track should feel short, but it’s delivered with such manic intensity that it feels at least twice that. It’s a rude awakening as to the power this band can muster and a hell of an introduction to the record. However, rather than simply slay and repeat, COMESS vary the dynamic and ‘Pit Dweller’, whilst no less intense, comes across as a hardcore take on Meshuggah. With a taut, elastic groove, ‘Pit Dweller’ shows the impressive musicianship that lies at the core of the band, but then COMESS unleash sonic hell in the form of ‘bitten’, a churning, hectic maelstrom of sound that offers little quarter to those of a sensitive disposition. It’s been some time since hardcore felt so powerful and so damned relevant and, as the band slam into the coruscating riffs of ‘toothskin’, a track that sounds not unlike Lamb of God covering sonic youth, there’s a physical compulsion to move. With a riff that is lighter of touch, if no less heavy, ‘Disact’ edges into the jazz-infused territory of Dillinger Escape Plan, the brutal stab of the guitar a welcome respite from the gargantuan chords that threaten to overwhelm the claustrophobic. In contrast, the underworld-troubling ‘Stygian’ is so bowel-rapingly heavy, it’s the sonic equivalent of a colonoscopy delivered by a rabid Pitbull.
Another track built around an elastic groove that seems to rebound around the horrifying vortex from which the vocals emerge, ‘Decrepit’ is a churning, misanthropic nightmare of sound that forces the listener to acquiesce over the course of three, sanity-challenging minutes. Having worn the listener down to the bone, ‘Doomsaint’ hits like a brick to the face, shocking and violent, whilst the Neurosis-referencing ‘Serpenticost’ is mired in corrosion and degradation. With the album careering towards its end ‘Deracinate’ deals in social dislocation, the flailing guitars conjuring a pretty evocative atmosphere of isolation and fear. It remains only for the final track, the lengthy ‘Second death’ (the only track to top four minutes) to bring the album to its bloody, vital conclusion, the band taking an unexpected last-minute detour into creepy, post-metal ambiance just as you think you finally have them figured out.
Drawing from the likes of Neurosis, Converge and Botch with elements of Lamb of God and Meshuggah thrown in for good measure, COMESS have forged a satisfyingly unique and brutal hardcore sound that nods to the genre stalwarts without aping them. Turbulent, brutal and relentless, ‘Botched and flailed’ is a masterpiece of malevolence. 9
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