If I was quizzed about groove metallers Maggoth's homeland while I was hearing this, the band's sophomore album, I think I would have picked something like Brazil, or perhaps USA. My quess would have been severely wrong: They hail from Poland.

Maggoth's debut album 'System Error' has one foot in groove metal territory, second one in aggressive 1980s, and the third foot (come on, it is thrash metal so mutants are allowed, I presume) in discordant spheres. The debut arrived back in 2011, so it is no wonder that the sophomore outlet is quite different. And to my ears, not in good way.

Maggoth happen to be the first European band I remember hearing that have the questionable honour of sounding like a not very distant relative to Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, and modern Sepultura. Why questionable? Mainly because those three bands have thoroughly gone through their style. Several times... That niche does not offer anything else. And Maggoth cannot bring in anything new, surely. However, with this we do not get jump-da-fuk-up metal, at least not very much of it. This is on harsher spectrum of the genre, even though there's some percussive and acoustic guitar work that is heavily influenced by these Brazilians' native music heritage.

So, primitiveness certainly shines through; sweaty beefiness and belligerence is what's heard. Maggoth go for discordant guitar work, loads of odd timings and jumpy rhythms (there sure is a big load coming for any drum lover), and general variability, also reminding of older Relapse Records roster bands, such as Mastodon and Sulaco.

The reason I find this less good as the debut album is that this features less riffs and more noisy guitar treatment happening. The riffs aren't much about thrash anymore, but predominantly hardcorey and post-thrashy groove stuff, that simply do not have that much of adhesiveness going on. The vocals are anguished shouting, and at times try to be more angry, but backfire in that. I really didn't hear that the vocals were in Polish until I read the booklet...

The sound is full-bodied and booming, truly letting every element breathe but also coming out tight. This kind of production is a must for music like this so it won't get clogged and destroy all enthuasism for a listener to get into it. A job well done.

What I adore here is the versatile drumming, otherwise this doesn't really grab me. It has its good moments when the guitars shift to riffing and vocals do not happen; the band really sound lethal. So much dissonant guitars and tormented shouting... Makes my head hurt!

Rating: 6- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
10/01/2020 20:54