One of the UK’s most revered death metal acts, Ingested have gone from strength to strength over the years, incorporating greater depth into their brutal outpourings, without losing sight of what attracted their increasing legions of fans in the first place. Back with new album, The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams is not so much a reset as a reaffirmation, following on from 2022’s claustrophobic Ashes Lie Still, a dark album even by Ingested’s brutal standards.
The album pulls no punches with savage opener Paragon of Purity, the subject of a recent blood-soaked video, and no less horrific when endured in purely auditory form. Showcasing a gleaming production that allows the band’s unholy assault to hurl the listener bodily across the room, it’s a precision-tooled monstrosity that will surely have fans headbanging ’till death. It’s followed by the short Endless Machine, an inferno of mechanistic percussion and down tuned riffing. With vocals torn from somewhere near the earth’s molten core and an oppressive sense of weight, it’s a relief when it gives way to the eerie soundscapes of Where No Light Shines and, while the riffs are never far behind, the brief respite is just enough to allow the listener’s battered synapses a chance to reset. Showcasing a different set of dynamics to the opening pair, Where No Light Shines is a strong, and brilliantly arranged number, the band subtly evolving and expanding their sonic palette, without sacrificing any of the brutal weight for which they’re known. With a guest spot from Josh Middleton of Sylosis, the churning groove of Expect to Fail gets necks snapping, before the band abruptly change tempo, sending the track surging through a melee of supercharged riffs, before plunging back to the crushing depths as Josh and Jason trade screams. With the listener against the ropes, the band unleash another bloody volley with Starve the Fire, adding djent elements to the mix, and allowing just a touch of melody to enter into the chorus, all of which only serves to make the track more chillingly effective.
Having comprehensively rearranged the listener’s senses, the graceful opening lines of Numinous come as a surprise, the band weaving picked guitar around haunting strings and synth passages to create an oasis of calm in the heart of this seething maelstrom. A truly stunning instrumental, it builds to a thrilling climax only fo rChimaera’s Mark Hunter to drag the band back to hell on the propulsive deathcore of In Nothingness. With a strong melodic thrust, it is the perfect follow up to Numinous, and it is nothing short of inspiring to hear the band exploring the breadth of their influences with such confidence and power. The short Pantheon offers no such subtlety, simply swinging at the listener until they’re bloodied and beaten, upping the intensity, and paving the way for the lengthier Kingdoms of Sand. A five-and-a-half-minute marathon, it sees the band slip effortlessly between tempos, delivering one of the album’s most punishing cuts in the process. It leaves A Path Once Lost to close this rabid record on a more reflective note, the band once again exploring different textures and proving themselves to be as adept at dark dynamics as they are at overwhelming shock and awe. Not that the track doesn’t explode, but with elements of djent and prog metal slammed into its DNA, it proves a stunning conclusion to an adventurous album, once again marking out Ingested as a very special band indeed.
Over the course of ten tracks, Ingested showcase a rare ability to bridge genres, all the while maintaining a strong grip on the ferocious death metal with which they first clawed their way, kicking and screaming, into the limelight. Brilliantly produced and arranged, and performed with conviction, The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams will ride high in album of the year lists, and deservedly so – it is a towering colossus of metal. 9/10
