Dug up, sewn-up, and given a new head before resuscitation Scottish brutal death metal quartet INIQUITOUS SAVAGERY return after nearly a decade with a sophomore full-length album that recalls the best, most adventurous traits of the sub-genre before tech, core, bass drops and all manner of interruptions mutated the artform further and further from its murderous locus. That isn’t to say that ‘Edifice of Vicissitudes‘ is a blunt instrument but rather that it retains the high standard of a certain era while exploring their own possibilities here at their highest skill level, their most imaginative on-fire state yet. This time around their work feels revived and exaggerated as they’ve done an especially fine job of keeping the thread going and packing each of these ~31 minutes with over the top vocals, a steady stream of riffs which cover a broad range of brutal death guitar techniques, and more slam-edged bruising than expected.

Iniquitous Savagery formed back in 2012 as bassist Chris Ryan (Party Cannon) linked up with drummer Euan Harrison and guitarist Joe Fleetwood to form a core line-up which’d held fast as a quartet for their first ten years with the inclusion of vocalist Josh Roberts who’d since ducked out in 2022. The early career of the band on Grindethic Records appeared kinda non-starter in terms of playing a pretty class act style of brutal death without any frills and disappearing after just a couple releases. They’d gotten to it pretty quick with their first EP (‘Compelled by Perverse Immorality‘, 2012) and the rabid, Deeds-tinged punish of their debut LP (‘Subversions of the Psyche‘, 2015) followed soon after and that was it. Their style was, and still generally is, moshable but largely no-frills brutal death metal attuned to the pre-2005 second gen style before the slamming n’ bass dropping era had followed up with its real heat. Much has changed in the nine or so years since then but their work is still pulling from the same font of influence most of the time.

As far as I recall they’d announced a new album was coming in 2021 after signing with Willowtip Records in late 2020 so, I figure the main reason for the delay beyond that point was for the sake of having to on-board new vocalist Liam McCall (Aphotic) beyond 2022. While I’d appreciated the original sound and vision of Iniquitous Savagery as an incredibly straightforward, mosh-thick brutal death band any obstacle that’d gotten in their way from that point only seems to have ensured a well-considered step up beyond previous material here as they go on dodging generica. It helps that they took their time jamming on material they could get behind, flexing the over-the-top range of techniques available to McCall while tightening their approach to ~3-4 minute burners. I’ve nothing but respect for an artist who knows when to shuttle out a rush of inspiration before it stagnates but even more for folks who wait, putting in the work until they’ve got a most complete representation of their ideal in hand. In this sense we can consider ‘Edifice of Vicissitudes‘ a hyper-evolution of the band’s sound/style which makes up for lost time.

I wouldn’t go as far as to suggest ‘Edifice of Vicissitudes‘ goes out of its way to resemble peak Deeds of Flesh and the early days of Defeated Sanity their gig does resemble those core values in terms of presentation, sound design and chug-heavy rawness which’d fit well into Unique Leader‘s roster in a certain pre-2008 era. Not all of the album fits squarely into this designation and you won’t necessarily hear it up front in terms of riffcraft via opener “Casualty of Diabolical Trial” but as we follow the thread beyond that point and take stock of the skill level deployed here via the new nutso inhale-happy vocalist as well as drummer Euan Harrison‘s wild showing of skill on the full spread of Side A it becomes clear that this is more than an amped up ‘modern’ version of the Iniquitous Savagery gig.

By the time we’re hitting songs like “Lifeblood” and “Drenched in Righteous Offal” in the second half of the album those earlier comparisons made might’ve begun to make more sense as the straightforward brutal death hingepoint of their sound is most clear on those last four songs. As these folks pinch and chug through harder-stabbed and ~less rhythmically flourished pieces we get a clearer viewpoint of those classic roots in some sense but alongside the moshable side of their taste, not necessarily as murderously delivered as like… ‘Masticate to Dominate‘ but taking that level of stacked riffcraft and working in a slamming brutal death feeling. The die-hard fans of the MySpace-era of homebrewed brutal death might’ve heard far more over the top performances in their lifetime in terms of interplay between vocals and death metal rhythms in chaotic fashion but McCall really stands out here has he runs the gamut of his inhale tech throughout the whole of this record to the point of entertaining distinction.

The general takeaway I’d been left with after numerous runs through ‘Edifice of Vicissitudes‘ was that it flexed just enough variety, resembled just specific enough of a “nostalgic” sound to get my attention and hold it but also took it to enough of an extreme that it wasn’t just another brutal death metal record. Granted if this style is your core sub-genre experience and your die-hard obsession, as it was mine back in the early 2000’s, I’d assume a band like Iniquitous Savagery would stand out for not messing around with trends or hypermodernity and instead invoking the good old days without sounding flatly dated or entirely stuck in one mode. Either way I could see how the average fan could be brutally reductive or wildly impressed based on their points of reference. For my own taste picking up a solid brutal death metal record with some level of an organic production value, chaotic drum presence and a maniac vocal pushing it all through is a refreshing addition to my rotation which avoids feeling like a goofy inside joke and punishes the whole way through. I don’t know if I’d still pick up records like this all damn day and liquify my senses but this was a trip that’d brought me to the exact right headspace. A high recommendation.

---