Chopped in half during its inception and rebuilt for freshly violent action Turku, Finland-based death metal quartet CONCRETE ICON achieve this third full-length album from a new perspective, now more intensely focused on ‘old school’ standards for brutality, groove, and the proper feature of the riff. In this way ‘Voracious Streams‘ stands out with appreciable immediacy as a bull among the cowed and softening will of the sub-genre’s modern zeitgeist. Classics-minded but never completely lost in the shadow of any one point of inspiration this album’s directorial hand leads with groove and an up-front hammer but eventually wields its punishing ouevre into an appreciably balanced showing.

Concrete Icon formed circa 2007 as a quintet with members linked to the brutal death and thrash/metalpunk scenery at the time, all of whom had interest in engaging with ‘old school’ death metal on their own terms. The main composer for the group has consistently been guitarist/vocalist Jaakko “Jake” Peltonen (Furious Descent, ex-Cumbeast). Their sourcing of authenticity pulls from the classic United States style of death metal riffcraft and the dark, morbid extremes of the European sectors, including dark metal. It was a combination that’d yielded atmospheric, mid-paced results to start with their debut EP (‘Where the Horns Reign‘, 2012) and a more forceful, harried attack on their debut full-length (‘Perennial Anguish‘, 2013) where melancholic mid-paced songs matched up with the chunkier sound of 90’s Asphyx to some degree and at that point their use of clean vocals and dark metal melodies had been largely phased out. Though there is little precedence to be found in terms of connecting the band’s most distant past with their present-day achievements it is worth exploring where they’d gotten started and how that core concept/sound had evolved with the circumstances of each release.

The peak of the core group’s efforts and the ultimate style of Concrete Icon via their Mark I intent was reached via their sophomore full-length (‘Rancid Harmony‘, 2019) a record which to me still bore that chameleonic quality, a loud and brash but somewhat melodic form of mid-paced death metal which takes heavily from pure death metal for its aggression. Consider the most grinding stampede of late 90’s Morbid Angel juxtaposed against melodic death (and gothic death/doom) fed lead guitar melodies. This is closer to what ‘Voracious Streams‘ is but after a complete reconfiguration of the band most all of their more melodic voicing and choppy mid-paced grooves have been excised for the sake of a more intense experience. While it couldn’t have been easy to basically restaff half the band (original bassist TK left after the recording) these guys’ve never sounded better.

Slabbed up with ultra fat Azagthothian grooved riffs complete with pinch harmonic punctuation via opener “Slaves of Hostile Domination” our introduction doesn’t lack any of the atmospheric dread of previous Concrete Icon records but they now carry a far more punishing focus on the heft of their rhythm section, both in terms of the bass-heavy production values and more actively slung attack. This is an introduction more than a pace-setter as we do get shades of brutality in some of these big-bossing change ups but nothing compared to the heavier slap of the next few songs to follow; You might recall I’d had the opportunity to premiere one of the albums strongest pieces, “Aberrant Tyranny“, which I’d described in terms of its “punishing ‘Necroticism…‘-level influx of the intro riff(s) and the Mike Smith feeling stampede behind certain verses” lending a “masterful intensity up front as the prime Florida death metal (Morbid Angel, Deicide, esp.) incense begins to rise in the overall pull of the song. It is a fine and exceptionally detailed piece to introduce the volatility and the well-trained compositional hand of the group…” and I think that remark still holds up in terms of how to best introduce ‘Voracious Streams‘ to the old school enthusiast who probably also enjoys some classic early brutal death.

From there Concrete Icon‘ve got plenty more to crack away at in terms of bloodying this realm with riffs but they’ve generally provided the reach of their sound, old school brutality with some thrashed-at interest which I’d loosely compare to a band like Resurgency who’d likewise reflected the volatility of early Sinister and Monstrosity. We find some iteration on the brilliant “Rats in the Matrix” as they’ve pressed a more thrashing step to insert into those familiar Floridian fusion riffs and the kinda ‘Souls to Deny‘ feeling brutality of “Storm of Denouncement” and the album doesn’t let up on these two general modes for the remainder of its ~35 minute run.

Side B is the sublime alignment of this record, not to take away from the pieces that’d trampled past prior to “Inferior Almighty” but the dual vocal tone trade-off, declarative chorus, and commanding set of main riffs all make it a stand out bruiser for my own taste. The extra something the song needs comes by way of a few blasted-out strikes and leads which cake up early on in the song but the major appeal on my part is the brutal groove which Concrete Icon‘ve built across each of the best songs on ‘Voracious Streams‘. “Chaos Cult” has just as much supreme bap fueling its hits, a main riff which sports finger shredding trills, and alongside the title track/closer generally offers another reason to keep shredding through the record even if the drums’ve clearly dominated the sensorial experience as the album begins to lean into its darker brutality.

At this point you’ve gotten the hint that this album balances punishing 90’s death metal sounds with heavier grooves and does a fine job hitting just enough riffs to meet the quota for constant interest generated over the course of its half hour plus run. No filler, no nonsense or unfitting genre melding, just pure death metal which packs a serious kick enough to warrant returning to. The atmosphere of the record might appear uneven here and there but I’d found this was balanced out by the aggression of their work pressing the pace forward beyond slower, fuming grooves. In an era where the volatility of death metal is slowly being erased for easygoing buddy-core I’d appreciated these folks bringing disgusting amounts of groove but keeping it brutal enough to represent actual ‘old school’ death metal in a serious way; On that same note cover art from the always brilliant Juanjo Castellano helps to secure this sense of pure death metal intent, further reflecting a classics minded approach. Everything aligns securely here for my own taste as I’d found myself returning to this one first for its pulverizing drum performances and then for the tightly wound riffcraft which further characterizes this revised vision of Concrete Icon. A high recommendation.

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