After many years of silence, Switzerland’s very own Near Death Condition have came back and released their first album in over seven years. I’ve been hearing many wonderful things about this band and truth be told I am beyond thrilled and excited to hear such claustrophobic, chaotic and destructive musical pieces of death metal that really made me appreciate their craft and ambition. Released on Unique Leader Records, this is the fourth full-length recording prior to 2014’s Evolving Towards Extinction which was a album that took the band’s blackened, old school and technically driven signatures that really set the bar sky-high and for this new record, they’ve upped the volumes to the max and I am incredibly impressed to not only hear the most brilliant and accessible albums of 2022, but this might arguably be the best material they’ve done to date.
Musically, this is a guitar riffage and blast beat record with songs being technical, progressive and old school slabs making these songs feel appropriate, morbid and the soundscapes here are just absolutely filled with beautifully crafted timed signatures well as every instrument giving the band members everything they got to prove themselves they got what it takes to make a damned good record. What really made me the most excited on hearing this album is that they’ve tried to experiment other musical components in which the secondary half of the record I get a strong blackened death metal atmosphere while also balancing some technical and brutal death metal inspired melodies almost if I were to hear anything out of a Nile, Deeds Of Flesh, Morbid Angel and Hate Eternal record to hear the band’s influence in their songwriting but they’ve done such a remarkable job keeping the tracks and dynamics feel naturally flavored and articulated without it sounding forced.
I just love the guitar melodies, the relentless blast beat drums, the production is stellar and the detail and progressiveness these musicians utilized in is such a marvelous experience front to back. From the moments of hearing The Bridal Chamber, Wisdom of Meaninglessness and Witness to the Martyr to Ascent from the Mundane, you’ll get melodic solos, frantic chords, rippling melodies and a Origin style sound so intensifying you really can’t think but sit back and let the crushing, discordant carnage and unforgivingly fast, very technical instruments that have met my expectations to the roof. Ascent From The Mundane is a unstoppable and unsettling beast of a record that’ll certainly be landing in my top favorite records of 2022.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
Review by Jake Butler
