By Monk
These Belfast groovecore machinists first came our attention back at the turn of the decade, when they exploded, phoenix-like, from the ashes of ultimately ill-fated Norn Iron death metal hopefuls Donum Dei before, like so many others, having their momentum unexpectedly stymied by the pandemic which crippled the Überverse later the same year.
When we emerged into the post-Covid era, the band did equally so with renewed determination and vigour, quickly rebuilding momentum with an attention-grabbing debut album – before, the brakes suddenly were slammed on again with one of those small matters which plagues so many acts, especially in their formative years… a dramatic line-up change enforced by the departure of not one but both of their guitarists (thus, in the process, breaking the connection with the formative oufit referenced above). Now, they have re-emerged once again, like a brutally-armoured butterfly from a suitably metalicized cocoon, with an album that just demands to be heard and heeded…
One thing that is hugely impressive about this album is its extremely thoughtful, precise flow and pacing, its apparent contrasts in feel and mood complementing each other, light and shade blending together with an easy comprehension of the need one for one another, aggression and pathos, despair and joy intermingling and intertwining with a rarely achieved cohesion and mutual understanding.
The thick groove of the opening title track sets much of the tone for what it is to come, its pummelling beatdown coagulated with an intrinsically intense sense of melody which permeates the rest of the album, a point immediate;y re-emphasized with the no holds barred deathcore brutality of ‘Radio Bleed’, which in turns melds and transmogrifies into the nu-metalcore of ‘Failure Of Being’ before ‘Deathbed’ leaves you lying exactly there with its title instructs you to be.
A personal highlight is the huge ‘Weaponized God Complex’, a massive slice of modern metalcore which encapsulates the album’s sense of complementary contrariness with its subtle layers of atmospherics and cybernetic industrial undercurrent. And then they only go and fuck with our brains even further by kicking off the album’s second half with the hardcore rap opening section of ‘Speak Up (Louder)’, emphasizing how far they are prepared to go in pushing the boundaries of expectation.
As I said above, this is an album that flows with a sense of both natural and cognitive progression, one track leading naturally into the next, its contrasts complementary and precisely so, almost as it it has been crafted to play in the live environment, which is not a bad intention in and of itself, as the result is album that is consistently impactful with each and every listen.
- ‘A Place For Those Who Suffer, Alone‘ is out now.
- Survivalist team up with labelmates Existentialist for the ‘Intimidation Across The Isles’ tour in late March/early April:
- They then return to the mainland ÜK at the end of May:
- © Über Röck 2026.