As far as splits go, the prospect of a collaboration between the barbarically raw Primitive Man and the apocalyptic drone sludge of Unearthly Trance should get any aficionado of murky, noise ridden doom drooling all over the floor.

It kicks off on a combined effort that as filthy as a doped out crack whore, with white noise bleeding from every orifice before it sets the stage for Primitive Man’s half of the split. The band from Denver is one of the nastiest bands on earth, the musical equivalent of having your skull headf**ked with a bone from your own right leg. Or EyeHateGod taken to its logical extreme, if you will.

The first track ‘Naked’ follows their well-known, uncompromisingly blunt route across feedback looped guitars, desperate screams of agony and tortured riffs that are sadistically stretched out on the rack until they snap. ‘Love Under Will’ follows as a brooding soundscape that I can only describe like if you would be wading through some flooded, submerged subway, water leaking from rusty pipes and foreboding, ear shattering screeches of metal upon metal as a metro train passes in a nearby tunnel.

The second half of this combo belongs to Unearthly Trance. Following their unfortunate split after the underrated ‘V’ and some time spent on the Serpentine Path with Tim Bagshaw they came back with a vengeance last year with ‘Stalking the Ghost’. Ryan Lipinski and co put a bit more fire and drive in their own contributions, kicking the songs forward with pummeling, hard hitting riffs you can actually still bang your head to. The outro ‘418’ is again a screechy radio transmission from hell.

It’s far from a pleasant listen to sit out this split, but it has never been intended to be ear candy. Being exposed to humanity’s foulest aspects should be an unsettling experience.

Release date: August 17 2018
Label: Relapse Records
Tracklist:

Primitive Man
1. Merging (intro) with Unearthly Trance
2. Naked
3. Love Under Will

Unearthly Trance
4. Mechanism Error
5. Triumph
6. Reverse the Day
7. 418