SINGLE REVIEW: Drifted – “Theomicrist” [2015]

Artist: Drifted 

“Theomicrist” – Single

When you were young, were you ever the subject of jeering bullies or abusive adolescents? Bruised and tears-eyes, you would receive the same familiar words from your parents: “sticks and stones…”—you know the rest, especially the end.

“…but words will never hurt you.”

This is true—or rather, wastrue—until the UK ultra-heavy deathcore act Drifted came along. With an immensely successful debut EP under their belt, the crushing quartet are back with “Theomicrist,” a single that hurls syllables heavier than boulders and breakdowns that could level Mount Everest—proving that, yes, words (especially those shouted by Drifted) can be harmful after all.

Clocking in at an exact six minutes of sinister aggression, “Theomicrist” is a journey through the visceral shades of deathcore—from groovy, catchy and quick to low and slow. Beginning with a bouncy groove that has just the right amount of punch, Drifted use their six minute monolith of magnificent brutality to take the listener on a figurative “tour”—one that begins straightforward but quickly decays into a series of spine-shrinking breakdowns linked together by riff-driven passages and flashy, quick drumming. Around the three-and-a-half minute mark—where most bands would be winding down—Drifted pull the Lynch pin out from under the listener, knocking them on their ass with a breakdown that spends the remainder of the song becoming more and more dissonant and aggressive without becoming dull or boring. Crushing guitars layer overtop of steady, beefy percussion—serving as a stellar canvas for vocalist Harry Davies to lead the charge into the listener’s skull. Just as Drifted’s dynamic musicians take the listener on a tour of deathcore’s varied stylings. Davies goes from grisly low bellows to screeching, soaring screams—and when it seems his register is all but used up, he is joined by one of heavy music’s most iconic frontmen to finish the song off.

A lesson in lurid, blistering brutality, “Theomicrist” is an unending salvo of chugs, grooves and riffs that split the listener from head to toe. Releasing one of the year’s most intense EPs, Drifted are back with a devastating single that is sure to keep all eyes peeled on them as 2015 fades into 2016.