Boy have I been waiting for this one.

Ever since these Russians dropped the killer video for “Protonemesis” over a year ago. I’ve been salivating for this release, as it’s been 10 years since Serial Urbicide and the new song showed a bit of a direction shift into a more ambitious form of slam with a more Dying Fetus vibe as well as some keyboards. There has also been some lineup shuffling since Serial Urbicide with drummer Vladislav Martirosov moving to lead vocals (although he has the same guttural gurgle), replacing Valeriy Kozhemyako and Denis Poluyan coming in on drums).

So after another few singles dropped (“Corpsepit”, “Omnivore” and “Agony Incarnate”- with a video that features former vocalist Valeriy Kozhemyako), how is the album in its entirety? Well- it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

The album is a concept that seems to mix the story of The Terminator franchise and the 1999 movie, Virus, where AI and machines become sentient, start murdering their human masters, wearing their skin and parts, and using human blood for fuel. And they lean HARD into the concept with every song having a lot of samples of various robotic slaughter and vocals, screaming, sirens, buzzing whirring, goopy, gushing, sloppy sounds, and such. And to be honest it detracts a little bit from what is often and otherwise some absolutely devastating brutal slamming death metal, especially early on.

This is a shame, as at times this is arguably some of the best slam of the year, if not the last few years with some simply jaw-dropping slams and some bass drops that will literally shatter your eardrums. But it’s also littered with these samples and other noises and sounds it takes away from the music. Case and point opener “Dehumanization Protocol”, which is honestly kind of a mess, despite one of the longest and loudest bass drops I’ve heard in my life about 3 minutes in. The same happens in “Extermination Factory”, “Terror Domination” and a few other places along the way.

 

BUT, when these guys hone in on actual riffs and notably huge slamming riffs, they absolutely fucking kill it, and when they throw in some epic keyboards it’s truly staggering. For example, the aforementioned standout “Protonemesis” is just so goddamn good, with an epic orchestral climax, as are the brutish “Omnivore”, no frills “Agony Incarnate” (with a cool in-song prayer) and late tracks “Sentenced to Extinction” and the 8-minute “Ruins of Armageddon”, two other total head-caving standouts that use orchestration to epic effect, and seem to be a little less sample-based laden.

The album ends with “Corpsepit”, which while has a fun as-hell video and adds fun things like a techno beat, seems like a bit of an afterthought, especially as the prior track “Ruins of Armageddon” feels like an album ending, climactic track. It just adds to a bit of a ‘disjointed’ vibe I get.

Of note is the CD booklet has an ‘interesting facts’ section where you get some insight as to where some of the songs got their influence from, what samples were used, when songs were actually written (some of the material was written back in 2012 which might explain the slightly disjointed vibe) etc. Kinda cool little feature I thought.

Dehumanization Protocol was supposed to come out in 2022, but its delay to 2023 seems warranted as there is a lot going on here. But ultimately it isn’t the shoo-in for the album of the year that I had hoped for after “Protonemesis” got me all excited. But it’s arguably still going to be the year’s best (if not the most ambitious) slam death metal record and has some truly killer moments.

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