
Nothingness - Supraliminal [Everlasting Spew - 2023]Hailing from the land of the legendary Prince, Minneapolis' Nothingness just dropped their second album, Supraliminal. Blasting out intense and engaging death metal, this quintet of warriors put their speed and technicality to great use and have crafted a very well done death metal album. Feeling akin to the classic Gorguts album Colored Sands, Nothingness' sophomore LP brings a wide range of sound, rhythm, and riffage along with varying speeds to cater to any death metal fan. Not too long after their first album, 2019's The Hollow Gaze of Death, Nothingness unleash nine well-crafted and well-recorded tracks with Supraliminal. Utilizing a full sonic scope, the album presents the listener with richly crafted and placed layers that manage to show restraint while still being big and powerful. In addition, they do not crowd each other and the instrumentation is given full ability to shine. This works out very well for successive listens, as each can be spent focusing on a new segment of the album that has yet to be discovered. These walls show the band's skill at keeping tempo with each other and how fierce they are as a unit. However, these thick and (usually) fast pieces aren't all that makes Supraliminal fantastic; sparser, evocative pieces are worked into each track to further progress the creative elements at hand. Whether as an introductory interlude or placed to break up the onslaught, Nothingness showcase their songwriting skills and technical abilities in numerous ways, and splitting up the tempo and tone is an excellent way to show this. While the album as a whole progressively and propulsively moves forward, the vocals and riffs expand Supraliminal in other varied directions, giving the thick layers room to stretch and further pull in the listener.
Showing how far death metal has come in its 30+ years, Supraliminal exhibits many of the recent classic traits while still pushing the genre forward. Each song on their latest release shows a strong commitment to songwriting, ability, and creativity. Extreme music has evolved in many ways in countless genres, and it is acts like Nothingness that help reinforce the beauty and importance of extreme sound.      Paul Casey
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