I feel as though I was just here a minute ago talking about new material from Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean, but, apparently, we’re dealing with an act that can move quickly. Such a thing can be just as interesting as it can be self-destructive if a band isn’t able to keep up with their ambitions as the quality eventually tanks. In this case, however, Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean proved itself to be more than up to the task. Barely six months after their previous release, the New England sludge devils have already returned to us with an effort that takes everything its immediate predecessor did and succeeds at cranking everything up to one thousand in an effort to both truly punish the listener and reward the sadists who sit through it all.
Before or since coming upon this act, I have not been exposed to such unyielding sludge metal that not only capitalizes on the violence factor of the style to supreme effect but delivers the satisfaction in overwhelming heaps, and I was convinced back in December that it would be some time before we would hear again from Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean with it being likely longer before we got something that really raised the bar from the act. Check your clocks and confirm with me that it has been but six months and the very arrival of “Obsession Destruction” has herladed in a fever pitch throughout the underground for this band, and any one of these eight tracks that make up this nearly 65-minute runtime is enough to grip you by the neck, squeeze the very life from your pathetic eye sockets, and have you come back for more every single time. This is not merely sludge metal. This is anger incarnate with naught but the scorching of existence the only true ending to a creation such a this when the eventual self-consumption throughout ultimate rage the only silence we will see thereafter.
To take even a small dip into “Obsession Destruction” is to put your very soul in peril. Viciously caustic right from the immediate beginning with Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean more than capable in every given instance of immense offensives upon all life, captivating riffs that only pull you further into the deadly storm, and long passages of doomy supremacy that can only invoke the ending of the world itself. It’s a record that holds nothing back in any form whatsoever with the reception that it has already received more than warranted for it is right from the cover art that you’re likely interested with the music itself the aural embodiment of a harrowing implosion that none can escape from once their within its grasp. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean has been a name that has lurked in the underground for years now with plenty of EPs and splits under their belt, but it is all that they’ve pulled off with their second full-length album that they’ve done much more than just raise the bar for themselves. “Obsession Destruction” shows at every given turn that the world of sludge metal still has so much more mass chaos to dole out should the right name comes along with this case being a bit of a lengthy name but one that we should not easily forget: Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean”.
This act could drop off the face of the earth tomorrow, and I can easily knowing damn well that both the band’s name itself and this album would find a good home in the depths of the underground with it being hailed as a need-to-know release for any sludge connoisseur much like Acid Bath and its reputation today. The power, hate, and catharsis that’s to be found within the confines of “Obsession Destruction” are not to be underestimated for even a microsecond lest the very energies of the creation wash over and consume you whole without so much as a second thought – another obstacle in the path towards the meaningless void that is life, nothing more.
LISTEN to “Obsession Destruction” on Bandcamp here.
LIKE Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean on Facebook here.
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