The last couple of years have been a whirlwind for the Essex-based Beyond Extinction, who dropped their first EP The Fatal Flaws Of Humankind in 2021, then hit a packed New Blood Stage at Bloodstock for their first festival appearance in the same year. Since then they’ve continued to hit the road with full force, playing shows with an impressive roster of bands including Viscera, Cancer Bats, The Five Hundred, and Our Hollow Our Home.

Nothing More Wretched (Self-Released) is their second release, and in a nutshell, is six tracks of absolutely pummelling Death/Doom Metal that has been created with a maturity well beyond the fledgling bands years. The EP opens with the creaking soundscapes of ‘Warmth Of The Empty Light’, with a demented whispering voice that sounds like something lifted straight from The Exorcist, building tension before pummelling drums crush the atmosphere along with the stabbing guitars of ‘The Subjugator’. 

Vocalist Jasper Harmer channels his own inner Pazuzu as his deep and murky guttural vocals drop, sitting perfectly in the mix and complimenting the music without dominating the sound. The track moves into the icy waters of pure sludgy death/doom before the pace picks back up with piercing guitars swirling around thudding drums. 

‘Nothing More Wretched’ has an incredible groove to it with riffs that hook you in deep and interludes of mesmerising doom from the very darkest depths breaking up the chaos. While ‘Gravedigger’ brings you stabbing guitars over a slow and pummelling percussive flow, before heading into a rippling cacophony with almost Djent-style polyrhythms. The maturity in their composition shows with an intriguing structure on ‘Gravedigger’ which drops back into a nihilistic chasm that will tear your soul apart, before heading into a beautifully dark and brooding outro. 

‘Eyes Of God Look Down Upon Me’ is phrenetic from the off with Harmer showing a range in his vocals with flashes of a Blackened influence, while the EP signs off with ‘Plague Monarch’ providing the softest moment of the record with a hypnotic and melodic guitar into, but which as you might expect does not last long. It gives way to an absolutely filthy riff of the highest order, again with a polyrhythmic style and the mightily impressive guitar work of Jude Bennet and Zach Scott working perfectly with the crunching bass of Niall Ivie. 

This is a dark and harrowing release by a band who all the while they continue to write songs that are just this damn good, are going to start to stand out and make their mark in a strong UK metal scene. 

Buy the album here:

https://www.beyondextinctionuk.com/nothingmorewretched

8 / 10  

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