Review by Carl on July 7, 2022.

Does that artwork remind you of Nocturnus's "Thresholds" as well? It certainly does remind me of it. Seeing this artwork actually gives a pretty good idea of what to expect of Rude's most recent offering, presenting the listener with a cool dose of competent old school death metal with a technical edge to it.

Rude has never been a band that relied on velocity very much, and on this release faster parts only make some occasional appearances, leaving more room for the cool, at times even jazzy riffing and excellent musicianship. Their style reminds me of albums like "Human" by Death and the first two albums of Gorguts and Atheist. Another reference here is "Testimony of the Ancients" by Pestilence, not only because of the music, but the vocals of Yusef Wallace sure sound familiar, keeping the middle between Patrick Mameli and Martin Van Drunen. The music certainly has a technical edge to it, but the band knows well enough how to keep things accessible, and not let the music deteriorate into tiresome wank. The compositions are well-played offerings of early 90's mid-tempo death metal, and I would like to make a special mention of the bass player. His performance is a great contribution to the music, as he reminds me of Steve DiGiorgio's work on the aforementioned "Human". Together with the above-par performance of both guitarists, this makes for an interesting and enjoyable dose of death metal with a technical edge.

There is some critique I have though, and that is that the percussion has to take somewhat of a backseat to the guitar and bass parts, something that does make the whole sound a bit clinical. Also I have to admit that perhaps a bit more uptempo parts wouldn't have hurt as well. I get easily bored by music that moves at a primarily mid-tempo pace, but because of the good compositions, excellent playing and the short duration of this EP, boredom is kept out of the door. Although I don't think 45 minutes of this would have kept me interested.

To conclude: if you were into their previous stuff, this should be right up your alley, and that goes for those into the bands and albums mentioned above as well. A good offering by a good band, nothing more, nothing less.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10