Digging deep into the Death Metal underground often reveals amazing gems and this is but one of them. Engulf is a studio act that must not go unnoticed by traditional Death Metal fans who love material from bands like Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal and Immolation. I am glad I came across this project that Everlasting Spew Records has recently signed and was highly surprised to find out there is a lone mastermind behind it – Hal Microutsicos, who I now worship.
Hal earlier released his previous EP “Subsumed Atrocities” independently which was a re-recording of a 2015 unreleased demo. He decided to make 2 more EP’s as part of a tri-series. “Gold and Rust” is hence his 2nd EP in this series.
As soon as I started to play the first track “Maul Master”, I knew that this is going to be damn good. Massive relentless guitar riffs start chopping your ears before the cavernous growls come in. These were also the true highlights for me on the EP. The drums and bass support the powerful guitars well in creating a dark wall of sound under the jarring flawless vocals. The dark and brutal chaos continues on in the other two tracks as a non-stop duel between Hal’s guitars and his complementing vocals like some huge internal beautiful battle in his mind. To top it all off, the production and engineering is done just right. Like his previous EP, it’s again short, but has some huge muscles on display.
The EP features some great cover art and also uses excellent abstract lyrical themes about a sentient being looking for powerful entities to aid him in his endeavour.
Make no mistake, Hal is now definitely a rising star in the Death Metal world. You will experience shock and awe listening to his razor-sharp tunes. The guy needs his own Death Metal subgenre as this is some of the finest well-structured Brutal Death Metal with influences from old school Death Metal and insanely good songwriting I have heard in a long time. I need more from him. Tons more, along with maybe some facemelting solos?
Great stuff indeed.
Rating: 4.5/5
You can find this one right here.
https://everlastingspewrecords.bandcamp.com/album/gold-and-rust
The Metal Wanderlust 