REVIEW: The Acacia Strain - Slow Decay [2020]
Artist: The Acacia Strain
Album: Slow Decay
You can’tteach an old dog new tricks. That’s the saying, right? That is to say that the actionsand habits we let define us in our youth are things we carry for the rest oftime…right? Well, If that saying holds any water, then one of heavy music’s heaviesthitters is the exception that proves the rule. Ending 2019 with a surpriseforay into blackened sludge and doom metal moieties with It Comes in Waves,The Acacia Strain kickstarted 2020 with a bang—a bang that would echo manytimes over with the slew of singles released leading up to the release of SlowDecay. Slow Decay sees the band launch head-first back into the crunchy,gritty, ruthless brand of deathcore that made them a staple within the heavymusic community (not to say It Comes In Waves wasn’t incredible in itsown right). Some of the band’s catchiest and most creative displays ofno-holds-barred aggression to date, Slow Decay is The Acacia Straindoing what they do best—and doing it, quite possibly, the best that they everhave—to the tune of global meltdown and autophagic annihilation; a tune thatshould feel eerily fitting to the state of affairs in 2020.
While ItComes in Waves was met with marked critical acclaim as well as anoverwhelmingly positive response from the band’s long-time fanbase, many—includingthose who loved The Acacia Strain’s foray into more metallic straits—longed formore of the band they know and love. That iteration of The Acacia Strainreigns supreme on Slow Decay. While it’s easy and comfortable to try andcompare the band’s latest offering to existing pieces in their discography—somethingI’ve found myself doing time and time again with this act, and others—the truthis that since Continent, each release has had its own unique atmosphere,giving each record of their a different personality, if you will. Thesame is true with Slow Decay, where Kevin Boutot’s percussion oscillatesbetween precise and pulverizing on “Inverted Person” to sludgy and crushing on “Ibreathed in the smoke deeply…,” and the remainder of the band’s instrumentationadapts to match. Songs like “Feed a Pidgeon, Breed a Rad” and “Seeing God” seeBoutot balancing beefy, huge breakdowns with more sinister groove-tinted patterns,as bassist Griffin Landa adds thickness and punch to each plodding thudof the kick drum. Others—“Chhinnamasta” and “I breathed in the smoke deeply…”come to mind—see Landa’s bass playing a bigger, more integral role in craftingThe Acacia Strain’s most ambitious and atmospheric brand of bone-busting -coreyet. Here, Landa works side by side with guitarists Devin Shidaker and TomSmith to create songs that feel so spacious they could easily be their ownsprawling galaxies—yet with all that atmosphere, still manage to pack punchesfurious enough to knock Mike Tyson on his ass. Shidaker and Smith surprise evenfurther, keeping the listener guessing with songs like “Inverted Person” and “Birdsof Paradise, Birds of Prey” which go for the throat without remorse, castingasunder the massive amounts of atmosphere for an abysmally aggressive attack onthe listener’s wits. There’s probably a way to describe Slow Death inthe context of The Acacia Strain’s previous records; maybe 1/3rd ComaWitch, 4/11ths Death is the Only Mortal, so on and so forth, but themore accurate way is to suggest—no, state—that The Acacia Strain have once morecaptured the pivotal components of their signature sound and added somethingnew and intangible—that aforementioned personality—to make it anenthralling and mesmerizing listen.
Throughout The Acacia Strain’s impressive tenure, one element has remained a constant—frontman Vincent Bennett. Bennett’s voice needs no real introduction or description, and his growth throughout The Acacia Strain’s discography speaks (or screams) for itself. Slow Decay sees him at some of his most contemplative points in the band’s history, with songs like “I breathed in the smoke deeply” and “Feed a Pigeon, Breed a Rat” combining tried-and-true tongue-in-cheek lyricism with metaphors and musings regarding existence and the futility thereof. Others, like “Seeing God” are more outright aggressive, with Bennett’s voice lashing out as such, using his distinct unique roars to bombard the listener with abrasive, immolating hatred. Bennett’s ability to blend his voice and lyrics in such a way to perfectly match his soundscape is a skill he’s spent well over a decade perfecting, and Slow Decay witnesses him at the apex of that aspect of his craft, perhaps with the assistance of several remarkable guest vocalists. What sets Slow Decay apart from The Acacia Strain’s other records, in one way, is the relative abundance of guest appearances, with each adding more depth and dynamism to whichever track they grace. Where this works brilliantly on most tracks—“Seeing God” and “I breathed in the smoke deeply…” among them—it also falls short slightly with “One Thousand Painful Stings,” which doesn’t see quite enough Courney LaPlante, or “The Lucid Dream,” which doesn’t see quite enough of Bennett. Even with these criticisms in mind, The Acacia Strain have failed to put a bad track on Slow Decay, and even while they’re imperfect, each of the aforementioned guest performances does nothing but amplify the extent to which The Acacia Strain’s dynamism is one of the most subtle but overwhelmingly effective in modern heavy music.
Slow Decay—orreally just D E C A Y—hit the mark in just about every criteria. Itsroll out mirrored the attitude and message of the record perfectly; bleak,looming and ominous, with new tidbits of terror dropping every month or so. Heavinessand aggression don’t even need to be inquired about—it’s assumed, rightfullyso, that the quintet earn ace scores in those fields. Slow Decaysurprises the listener, however, in how dynamic, catchy and clever it is in itsapproach to ruthless, bitter and oppressive heaviness. Just about every songwill find a way to get stuck in the listener’s head, and just about every songmanages to simultaneously have a segment that makes the listener question ifthey ever really knew what it meant to be heavy—sometimes, those twoparts are one in the same. At the end of the day, The Acacia Strain have proventhemselves as overlords of contemporary heavy music, and Slow Decay is amongthe biggest moves they’ve made in asserting their devastating dominion.
9.5/10
For Fans Of: Xibalba, Oceano, Fit For An Autopsy
By: Connor Welsh