Pseudogod - Deathwomb Catechesis

Pseudogod are a Russian blackened death metal band. They've evidently been around since 2004, and they have produced a scattering of demos and splits over the past few years. It was not until this past April, however, that they released a full-length album, entitled Deathwomb Catechesis.

While the music on this record is not even remotely like sludge, for some reason the word that comes to mind when trying to describe this is "sludgy". I think it's the murky production. Combined with the deep, guttural, and abnormally pervasive vocals, there just seems to be this expanse of sticky, swampy, gloomy, sludgy noise running throughout the whole record. The instrumentation either juts out from this muck like a dead branch grasping desperately out of thick bed of mud, or it swirls over top of it like a ghostly, concealing mist. Either way, this oozing expanse of stink and rot and decay lies at the foundation, the underlying evil from which the lumbering beast emerges to assault our ears and minds.

This is a strange record for me to talk about, for some reason. When I attempt to pull it apart and figure out what is making it tick, I just seem to run up against a wall. Instead, I'm just left with a general impression of this monolithic mass of darkness rising up out of a dead swamp. The riffing and drumming are both solid but sluggish. Their real quality, though, is the sense of foreboding and evil they carry with them. It's hard to place the origin of this feeling, yet it's by far the most distinct aspect of the overall sound.

Deathwomb Catechesis is a really strong record. I'm frustrated by my inability to give any valuable analysis of the music, but what I know for a fact is that it left a bigger impact than many of the death metal releases I've heard this year.

Grade: A-