Review by Alex Grindor on July 17, 2023.

Jarring riffs and twisted rhythms welcome you to Dead And Dripping newest LP: Blackened Cerebral Rifts. A swirling mass of twisting cacophony, technical madness and unhinged vocal utterances that relentlessly shift in unexpected ways, like the most foul eldritch entity. While the project (lead by Evan Daniele) shows a magnificent prowess in their instrumental execution, with constant twists and turns, it also demonstrates that, when it wants to slow down and go heavy, it does so with utmost ferocity.

Wasting no time in introductions, a chaotic assortment of strings and drums open the gates for this record and never backs down for a single moment. Even if the first segment seems simple enough, as the album progresses it becomes more maniacal and heavy. The guitars are heavy in their own right with a wide variety of riffs and great solos to add some variety. The bass sounds glorious and crystal clear and also provides moments of technical prowess on its own. The drums are well executed and I commend the man behind the instruments for being able to consistently keep up the recurrent changes in tempo, never faltering for a single moment. The vocal performance is excellent as well, with a monstrous guttural growl that evocates similarities between Frank Mullen and Antti Boman. Considering that the band as a whole seems to take pages from the book of Suffocation and Demilich, this should be of no surprise.

Production wise, everything is right in its place. The reverb-drenched vocals may dominate entirely when they appear but even so, the instrumentation is still audible. It retains some rawness in its sound as a whole and I enjoy that, as many modern death metal albums are way overproduced (at least for me). I do find that the instrumental piece has some weird-sounding guitars, as if they weren't recorded properly or, rather, have one too many effects added to them. Aside from that, some of the vocals that lack reverb sound poorly in comparison to the rest, but this kinda adds to the strangeness of the music. Just some minor nitpicks that mars an otherwise good record.

Brutal Death Metal (and its technical variants) are something that I rarely listen to, as many bands from the 2010's began to sound the same after some time. Despite this, Dead And Dripping has my full attention and this record is an absolute blast to play. It's like the dissonant, twisted offspring of Nespithe and Effigy of the Forgotten, with some groove added in the midst of all. For being their third album, it is a well crafted record of great quality, impeccable instrumentation, jarring harmonizations and monstrous vocals. All delivered by one single man. If the mixture described above sounds interesting to you, then be ready on August 11th when this beast drops.

Rating: 8.8 out of 10