The entirety of the dissonant-death-black-core infantry is mired in the trenches of ulceration. No forward movement. Total trench-foot. Nothing new. But here comes Dormant Ordeal with no fucks, going over the top, charging across no-man's land, power-sliding through muddy craters, single-handedly assaulting the enemy and charging off to who the fuck knows where. Tooth and Nail is a mind-blowing achievement of progress. Dissonance is subverted and distorted by seductive anti-melodies. Rhythmically speaking, Dormant Ordeal deal in impossibilities. The drums are staccato-speedy enough to set off a Geiger counter. The guitars, though... These are riffs that would do fine enough with tremolo-picking, but instead they're often palm-muted and downpicked with impossible exactitude and speed. What the fuck, I say. I hear a lot of Vader in the relentless dedication to speed, and that permanent allegiance to Polish precision likely drives my adulation. Tooth and Nail isn't monolithic like much in this milieu. There's dreamy-dead cleanliness, depressing-ass drone, and much more. The only band inhabiting this martial space with such authority, that comes to my mind, are Castevet, but they're long gone. Was Mounds of Ash really 15 years ago? Fucking hell. I think Tooth and Nail has that kind of staying power.
p.s. - They released this shit in a fucking 1991-style longbox and it is a beautiful thing. Respect.
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