It’s been a few years since we’ve been graced with a dissonant slab of sludge infused blackened death metal from the Colorado natives Glacial Tomb, but they have returned with a bang rather than the proverbial whimper. After adding bassist David Small (Khemmis) to the cauldron they band have created a refined, technically masterful 36 minutes of rip-roaring death metal, exploring the themes of everyday suffering, cosmic horror, mental illness grief and social isolation to pound your brain into an unrecognisable mush.

Drawing on the comic-tinged supernatural horror stylings of Thomas Ligotti, the pessimistic views of Peter Wessel Zapffe and Philipp Mainländer the lyrically dense topics are brought to life by Ben Hutcherson, coupled with the black metal elements it makes for something that is greater than the sum of its genres, deftly dodging time worn tropes, or making use of them to crushing effect…