### Ignivomous: Contragenesis

#### 12/06/12 || gk

Melbourne, Australia’s Ignivomous first came to my attention a couple of years ago with their debut album “Death Transmutation”. While it was a very promising debut, it was also yet another album that seemed to worship at the altar of Incantation. While I have no problems at all with Incantation worship and I liked “Death Transmutation” a fair bit, in the end, it was a fairly derivative piece of work. Now, 3 years later, the band is back with the follow up “Contragenesis” and business has really picked up.

The album opens with a moody doom laden intro that sets the tone nicely with a huge ominous riff slowly picking up on volume and momentum till it segues effortlessly into proper album opener and all round awesome song “Heritage of the Jackal”. Dissonant tremolo picked riffs are the order of the day as the band just absolutely hammer through walls and come across like a vicious, snarling beast. A change in tempo in the middle of the song from super-fast and chaotic to mid paced and groovy works really well too. “Seventh Seal Gnosis” again uses a variety of tempos to crushing effect and the band’s dense death metal attack is absolutely relentless on this song. Title song “Contragenesis” hides a burly, tough groove beneath the constant dissonance and is a pretty great song particularly with the faster parts. “A Rotting Faith Condemned” has a mix of slow and doomy riffs with absolutely chaotic and evil sounding guitar parts that sit together and work in creating a suffocating and claustrophobic atmosphere. “Heirophant” is probably the most outwardly groovy song on this album with a ridiculously heavy bottom end and some killer mid paced grooves. The album closes with the epic “The Final Cadence to Bloodshed”. It starts like a slow burning death doom song and then makes its way across 9 minutes of claustrophobic and incredibly heavy death metal. It’s a superb finish to the album.

There are a few changes in terms of song writing here when compared to the debut. The Incantation worship has been toned down quite a bit, the doomy bits are almost all but gone except for the final song and the band has incorporated more of a dissonant feel to the songs. Guitarists Sean Hinds and Mathew Johnson are absolutely relentless with their riffing and their bass heavy tone really adds to the atmosphere on this album. Drummer Chris Volcano who previously spent time with Destroyer 666 pounds the life out of the kit and his style really works well with Ingnivomous. The only minor complaint I have with the sound of the band is that too often, the bass guitar is buried beneath the avalanche of guitars and drums and you have to pay close attention to really pick out the bass lines.

Ignivomous have a winner here. The band has really evolved over the course of the last three years and now seem to be well on their way to occupying their own little space in the death metal spectrum. Make no mistake; “Contragenesis” is a nasty, filthy piece of work and takes some dedicated listening to really get into. This is not an album you play and leave in the background but fans of old school, dirty death metal should find plenty to like here.

- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Nuclear War Now!
- Website: Ignivomous MySpace
- Band
- Mathew Johnson: guitars
- Sean Hinds: guitars
- Jael Edwards: bass, vocals
- Chris Volcano: drums, vocals

- Tracklist
- 01. Damnatio Memoriae
- 02. Heritage of the Jackal
- 03. Seventh Seal Gnosis
- 04. Monumental Cosmic Transgression
- 05. Contragenesis
- 06. Pyroclastic Downfall
- 07. A Rotting Faith Condemned
- 08. Hierophant
- 09. The Final Cadence to Bloodshed