Car Bomb - Mordial

Label: Holy Roar Records

Released: 27th September 2019

Rating: ★★★★

Car Bomb’s fourth album ‘Mordial’ is an unrelenting experimental odyssey that takes their metal sound and warps it in a multitude of directions.

It’s an album where nothing is quite as it seems. You’re pummelled by heavy riffs on the visceral ‘Fade Out’ and ‘Vague Skies’ before being pulled in different directions as ‘Scattered Sprites’ evolves into odd drum patterns and spacy winding guitar solos.

A sense of dislocation is present throughout which gives the record a thrilling quality. Heavy, heavy riffs and an experimental dynamic sit side by side with each other, sometimes slightly awkwardly but mostly the creeping feeling of unease is compelling. When the album truly lifts of like on the accelerated explosion of ‘Blackened Battery’ it feels utterly energising though.

The one constant throughout ‘Mordial’s shapeshifting is the guttural vocals of Michael Dafferner which keep things rooted.

Four albums in and the Long Island quartet are firmly indulging in their own cultivated DIY aesthetic to forge their own path and it’s resulted in a sonically diverse record that both challenges and excites in equal measure.