Unique Leader Records are one of the best labels that have continuously impressed me with many great releases in 2021 from Osiah, Humanity’s Last Breath and Mental Cruelty, to New Jersey’s very own Cognitive which I’ve been following them since their sophomore full-length album Deformity which took the band’s heavy influences on technical and brutal death metal and took their music into the most visceral and energetic releases of their career. Last album we’ve heard by the band was in 2018 titled Matricide which in my opinion is the best sounding record the band has done due to the magnificent abilities for their hard-working contributions, evolution and growth they’ve managed to stay humble and true to their roots and created such a marvelous album with the debut of Shane Jost who’s vocal patterns and presentation on the album was sensational.
Now in 2021, we have the new chapter into the band’s catalog titled Malevolent Thoughts Of A Hastened Extinction and honestly, not only this is better than Matricide, but this is the best, most produced, raw and emotional albums the band has ever done both musically, lyrically, sonically and mentally. Their compositions, songwriting and maturity have prolific acts of imaginative technical brutal death metal instrumentals really showcases both highly visionary and very fluent onslaughts promisingly brings outstanding energetic inclusions of atmospheric waves and slam-bound contents are absolutely top notch. Musically, lyrically and atmospherically speaking, the musicianship and musical progressions is tighter, stronger and extremely comprehensive where each instrumentals are clean, sharp and organic. This album also introduced and borrowed the same rhythmical leads but maintaining such maturity within the musicianship, production and instrumentation wise this is a very well productive, respective and prevalent structures of extreme musicality is far incredibly enjoyable start to finish.
Songs such as To Feed The Worms, The Maw, Destitute and Oroborous for example they’ve taken their influences from Archspire, The Zenith Passage, Origin and Disentomb from its catastrophic, aggressive, progressive and thickened layers of sonic booming blast beats, massive overloads of produced guitar melodies, vocals being vicious than ever before and the overall statistics is truly outstanding. Those wanting a genre very fresh to combine technical, brutal and slam arrangements that are complex and piled disgustingly high amounts of visceral musical stylistics are surely worth the listening.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
