Waterborne agents of entropic desiccation plan a hive-minded rhizoidal invasion of splayed wide pores as crews of ravagers pierce and poise themselves to crush away all osmotic pressure on a cellular level. Bursting and breaking down all walls as they siphon the organism to mush, the de-keratinization of the skin carries the most horrifying sentence of death imaginable, moldered into dripping disassembly in order to feed the next generation of infestation and unchecked proliferation. No battlefield exists for these microscopic hordes, only wide open spaces and a frothing wake of ‘shroom and slime in their path. One imagined real-yet-unreal horror among many arrives as a surge of blood to the collapsing skull as West Yorkshire, England-based surrealist death/doom metal quartet SLIMELORD thrum, wail and warp through several surrealistic landscapes espousing abominations and weird truths on this imposing, nigh psychedelia stratified debut full-length album. ‘Chytridiomycosis Relinquished‘ pumps its masterful death metal ooze with finesse from a frothing, belligerent place where scrawling momentum and searching phrases slowly infest and splatter loose the senses. An atmospheric death metal album given a nigh progressive level of intrigue by riff-obsessed hand the quartet’s vision in musty blooming debut is intoxicating to say the least, a full-body enveloping high which entrances quick before slowly dissolving all that its thorn-covered branches reel in.

Slimelord formed circa 2019 between folks best known for their technical death/thrash metal band Cryptic Shift initially calling their style something like “swamp death” while attempting a filth-ridden and slow form of death metal heavily inspired by Disma and named for an inside joke about a certain sludgier era of Morbid Angel (1995-2000). Had it been foundered and released in the early 2010’s, we’d probably have written it off as “caverncore”. This first basis for their style was made clear enough on their first EP (‘The Delta Death Sirens‘, 2019) while their lyrics covered everything from odd science, freaks of nature and environments/lore within video games such as Dark Souls II. It was clearly a side project meant to blow off steam outside of the high-demand work of their other group, they’d said as much in early interviews, but that sound would soon take root and evolve over the course of two more EP releases. ‘Moss Contamination‘ (2021) wasn’t their leap forth but a solid example of their continued play with atmosphere, whammy abuse and different types of doomed, mid-paced movement. The closest they’d come to a breakthrough moment was their third EP (‘Insurmountable Peril‘, 2022) a short but effective enough introduction to even more freehand atmospherically shot rhythms, though nothing quite like what we find on this debut LP.

The important takeaway from venturing back through their first few EP releases is some general provenance on how they’d developed the organically whirring machine of ever-wandering motion Slimelord consistently works with on this LP. Despite their work tending to be less than tuneful and always awash in a lush, often overdrenched atmospheric style most all of it is memorable for the trip that it takes and in this sense ‘Chytridiomycosis Relinquished‘ still has much in common with ‘Gateways to Annihilation‘ and its slower, steadier pulverization even if the overall effect resembles something far more abstract in motion ah via more recent Krypts, or even earlier Pan.Thy.Monium (see: ‘Dream II‘) along the way. As I approached the two lengthy and imposing opuses which open the album, starting with “The Beckoning Bell“, I wasn’t quite ready to put my finger on big and storming dissonant lurch of their work just yet due to the higher-speed exploration and brutality available to that first piece, wherein I’d just as well mention Ignivomous or Disembowelment one moment and Immolation or Gorguts the next. And keep in mind these are vague suggestions of form, songs like “Gut-Brain Axis” seem to push further, out toward Portal-esque territory in their reach for severity and estranged yet brutal abstraction without leaving that cavernous, ‘old school’ directive pull.

You’ll understand that sentiment a bit better once you’re hit with what I’d consider the throat gripping peak of the introductory half of the full listen, “Splayed Mudscape”. Tectonic plates are shifting, guitars are yanking the ear in all directions and the intensity of lumbering death metal comes by way of sharp angled and buzzing abstractions of form as they hum together, creating a slinking motif and stumbling forward pace which has some intense amount of layering beyond its brutal force which recalls ‘Jar of Kingdom‘-era Alchemist levels of creeping tension and hallucinatory flow. Slimelord bring expertly positioned discordant and dissonant wheeling motions in and out of focus with a masterful hand on that particular song and, I suppose it was the first piece to push me over the edge and recognize I’d do better to resign myself to the imposing density of ideas available to each song rather than try to catch every detail the first couple of times through; To be frank I was expecting something a bit more plain and slow, the usual nowadays pastiche of ‘old school’ traits and dry riffs but here we get a truly psychedelic death metal experience with a brilliant sense of tension and menacing build, as we find on “Batrachomorpha Resurrections Chamber.”

Immediately present but variously hit with reverb or phase shifting, more often than not brutal yet clipping at a mid-pace, the drumming here is not as plainly barbarous as on Slimelord‘s EPs but it is generally blunt in living up to various points of inspiration while still adapting to any given moment with an almost jammed, fusion’d intensity. The main focus of the render is not out of character for a Damien Herring mix/master with a mids-crisped set of guitar tones on various downward shot planes which allows the bass guitar to stand out in various states of sync’d up hammering and desync into tirade throughout. “Tidal Slaughtermarsh” is a fine example of these rhythm section traits and performances working together to create an unreal but never wholly chaotic sense of momentum, particularly as they introduce the first couple of minutes and one the punishing throttle of the song fully cracks off. This song also does well to keep the energy high and the cruel prog-death side of the band alive, replicating some of the “Gut-Brain Axis” exposed traits as we step toward its fifth minute or so and the bounding of the rhythms takes a sharp turn. This is essentially the peaking end of the album and closer “Heroic Demise” serves as the sole stumble on the running order, a rumbling charge toward the light at the end of the slime-dripping tunnel.

During the process of preview and soon after in more involved moment-to-moment analysis I’d routinely found my mind wandering for minutes at a time, noting that when Slimelord brought me back into the moment and caught me twice phasing out of time, I’d been flustered by the transport. Unsure of what song I was on and wondering what exactly is the band intending with this organic, improvised feeling sense of movement within a mind palace which also encourages weirding avant-garde, dissonant, doomed and never clearly prescribed movements. Curiously enough this fungoid mystery cult’s actions end up substantive, memorable, and completely packed with detail that thrills the mind each pass through. The infectious nature of the album comes from the waltz of its rhythmic suggestion, leads which cycle back and riffs which stick in mind without much more than the simplest gesture toward a hook. The effect is heady for sure but the musicianship and handle of the riffs are also substantive beyond a considerable atmospheric froth; On top of this above-average showing of musicianship we’ve got another world exposed by the portal-fingered touch of Brad Moore who gives us a frame worthy gatefold full of rich color and stare-worthy abstract forms. Beyond suggesting the very high standard applied to every aspect herein I figure the biggest compliment I can give ‘Chytridiomycosis Relinquished‘ is that it has convinced me that this band is not a time killing side project but an truly exciting prospect in the moment, and in future iteration, which continues to warp the mind with each repeated listen. A very high recommendation.

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