Slimelord - Chytridiomycosis Relinquished

Slimelord is a UK-based extreme metal band that formed in 2019.

“Chytridiomycosis Relinquished” is their full-length debut album, in addition to having released three EPs and a live album.  

This is one disgusting and twisted album that mixes in death, doom and some truly tripped out experiences. It is as weird and unique as it is heavy and against-the-grain.

So many bands try to appeal to the masses by producing safe, watered down metal but Slimelord refuses to have any of that.

Even the subject matter is quite a bit different, though it is of an important nature...the disease known as Chytridiomycosis, which has caused a decline of 501 amphibian species by making it impossible to regulate water absorbtion.

This gruesome disease needs a gruesome album and that is what the band delivers.

“The Beckoning Bell,” begins with a short build up before a rising lead guitar notes call forth a brutal death growls. The song lurches into a doom dirge but the drums and bass keep the low end intensity up. 

A cacophony of chaos from 2:44 to around the 5:25 mark dominates the senses with a frenzy of unrelenting attacks.  Afterwards, psychedelic melodies creep in, pulling the bass alongside it before it all fades out, leaving the nerves fried.

“Splayed Mudscape” shows just how effective the rhythm section is. The vocals hit hard, sort of splattering everywhere in little bursts of necrotic explosions. 

The 4:45 mark all the way to the end is the result of old school sensibilities aligning with a vicious atmosphere which, in turn, is built off a clever sense of songwriting and directional purpose. 

“The Hissing Moor” is one of my favorite on the album due in no small part to the nesrly two minute buildup. Listeng to this part feels like being pulled into another dimension. 

From the bass at the 4:32 mark all the way down to the end, the band plays death metal that is cohesive yet feels like it threatens to unravel…..absolutely love it.

The ending song, “Heroic Demise,” feels like the end of the world…an inevitable death cannot be abated.  It is one of the better instrumentals I've heard Lately because it captures the atmosphere of the album, riding the line between alien and familiar.

All in all, Slimelord’s “Chytridiomycosis Relinquished” is an album that I expected to be of a solid but standard death doom quality but turned out to be a surprisingly refreshjng take on the genre, balancing a heavy sound among more spacey, psychedelic soundscapes.