Endless Detainment (studio album) by Serpent Column

From ForegroundNoise 12/21/2020 12:31

Tighten the area to increase the pressure. This is the guiding principle to Serpent Column’s Endless Detainment. Its nine song tracklist is only one fewer than last year’s Mirror in Darkness, but here the total runtime is sliced in half. Not even the longest cut reaches the four minute mark; guitarist James Hamzey and drummer M. Holloway refuse to afford these snarling, muscular outbursts the luxury of outstaying their welcome.

Even as each writhing mass desperately vies to extend its short lifespan, these songs are hardly malformed afterthoughts. Following the assault of opener “Pantheoclasm”, “Violence Aesthete” integrates into its own rhythm the lurching death throes of its predecessor, before it buries them under relentless blast beats and tremolo-picked guitar no less moving than the most anguished atmospheric black metal. All that, in barely two minutes.

Calling this EP ‘not for the faint of heart’ is enough of an understatement it verges on being facetious. Like the most rewarding tough listens, this isn’t a beast to be tamed, it’s a majesty to be awed. Come to terms with your own insignificance and you’ll find you can’t look away.