Mélancolia – HissThroughRottenTeeth
Release Date: 21st April 2023
Label: Greyscale Records/Nuclear Blast Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Deathcore, Melodic Black Metal, Industrial Goth, Nu-Metal.
FFO: Shadow of Intent, Cradle of Filth, Lorna Shore, The Black Dahlia Murder.
Review By: Rick Farley
Launching in 2022, Melbourne, Australia based death dealers, Mélancolia is a melodic blackened deathcore band that also utilizes elements from the depths of industrial goth and nü-metal within its horror filled, pummelling foundations. Set to release this hell filled soundscape is Greyscale Records in Australia and New Zealand, with Nuclear Blast Records releasing for the rest of the world, HissThroughRottenTeeth is going to turn some heads sideways and break some necks. To be backed by such heavy hitters this early in their career says a lot about how ungodly awesome this band is.
This is not your standard deathcore. Mélancolia is a band chock-full of creative nastiness and hellish dimensions that will do more for redefining the genre than it will for sounding like everyone else. The core is there, blast-beats and breakdowns, wretched screechy vocals that sounds of demons and death metal guitar brutality. But what this band does so well, is the blending of despair, angst, and melancholy within its deadly but satisfying intense structures. The overall song writing is nothing short of inspired, with the seemingly perfect placement of melody, brutality, and terror in its thirty-seven-minute runtime. The flashes of other genres seem placed expertly amongst all its vileness, creating one whole sonic horror. Visually, aesthetically, and musically.
HissThroughRottenTeeth gets right to the torment with the first single released, the volatile and unpredictable, but extremely vile, Horror_Ethereal. An absolute blistering reckoning of crushing guitars, horror filled atmosphere and fiendish tunnel screams. Exceptionally versatile vocalist Alex Hill can hit all the savage scream and gutturals with ease, rivalling any deathcore/black metal style singer out there. Moments of Dani Filth mixed with Trevor Strnad really stand out, with his low growls adding an undeniable demented personality to his sickening vocal acrobatics. The track whips, weaves and stabs its way through like a serial killer on a murderous spree. Blasting shades of black metal fits, filled with groove and theatrical sonic breakdowns that fulfil a darkness that’s been missing from this genre as a whole, is refreshing to hear. Sure, other bands have been trying to push this style forward, but Mélancolia’s hyper-charged vision of it succeeds on every facet, and just uniquely levels everything up. This is straight putrid, headbanging fun.
HissThroughRottenTeeth follows a storyline of a fallen deity cast down from a godly realm and met with punishment of reincarnation as a human with a wealth of knowledge yet stripped entirely of power. The album traverses different stages of the deity’s miserable existence, doomed to repeat a painful cycle for all eternity. The dreadful wall of atmospheric guitars from Joshua Taafe and Billy Morris on GOD TONGUE turn into a venomous taste of crunchy gallops and tremolo picked higher note melodies that bring out the blackened macabre in the track, making for pitch black darkness filled with hooks that’s impossible to deny befitting the deities tortured state. Drummer Mason Page glides from powerful blasting to intricate fills to breakneck groove on When Shovels drag on Concrete. Atmospheric synths add a false sense of mysterious comfort to the layers of pained harmony. Album closer …a cold static eulogy uses some unnerving dissonance before it brutalizes with heavy chugging guitars. That track has a fitting finality to it, that ends things with a dramatic oppressed feeling, leaving you drained of your own sanity and a headful of grotesque visuals.
As a whole everything here is done extremely well, production is on point, being gnarly but with great clarity. The pacing and placement of tracks all flow naturally. The balance of heaviness, creative dynamics, sinister hooks, atmospheric darkness, and extreme variances is truly a high mark for modern deathcore in 2023. Mélancolia will find breakout success with the release of HissThroughRottenTeeth, and I can unequivocally say you will not find a better deathcore release this year by anyone. 
(4.5 / 5)
