Heavy Metal Tribune

Undead Pandemic [UK]
The Rising
2012
Full Length
Independent
Black/Death Metal/Goregrind

Now, I am not exactly familiar with the goregrind genre, with more notable bands such a Cock and Ball Torture mostly being a miss for me. But seeing Undead Pandemic mentioning black and death metal among their influences along with goregrind has certainly piqued my curiosity, giving me some hopes that this could be a good thing and finally lead on to the introduction to goregrind proper. The Rising is the band's debut release more than 2 years since writing of the album commenced.

The album opens like a typical black/death metal album with title track The Rising, with a heavy atmosphere before the band unexpectedly introduces a blasting segment with no warning at all, with abrasive guitars and insanely fast programmed drums, and just as suddenly as it all began, it ended. Scorched Earth sees Undead Pandemic beginning their onslaught proper and that buzzing guitar tone and programmed drums come in again, sounding almost like a broken record player with jammed on a single chord on a highly distorted guitar. The usage of keyboards also shrouds the music in a somewhat haunting atmosphere in the already chaotic segments above. Band mastermind Ben Murphy's vocals are a typical black metal shriek, which is often punctuated by frenzied whispered/spoken parts, constantly testing the limits of the listener's sanity. There are also moments where the presence of the bass guitar is felt, such as on Black Lightning Rupture, and this somehow gives an old-school video-game vibe with the low-pitched hum at the background.

Songs on the album are often eccentric and unpredictable, with no fixed and proper song structures on most of the tracks. This results in the album for the most part containing songs that do not sound repetitive and presents something different to listeners with every track, though for the most part this has left me confused and eventually drifting off, leaving The Rising on as background sound. This is further worsened by the weird instrumentation throughout the album. However, the keyboards play an important role on the album, often being the instrument that provides some sense of sanity and normalcy when things start to go insanely weird. The numerous ambient/atmospheric moments on the album such as the second half of Grim also has similar calming effects as well.

Unfortunately, this album has personally been a rather difficult one to listen to, especially with the programmed drums and the extremely raw and DIY-sounding production quality of the music. The extent to which the programmed drums are used even result in the music giving off a synthetic vibe, and though this could have very well been the entire intention of the band, The Rising has been a rather meaningless journey for me, and could take someone with very acquired tastes in music to appreciate.

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©2012 Heavy Metal Tribune | Hong Rui