Erdve are from Lithuania and play blackened hardcore. This is their debut album.

Here we have 37 minutes of hostile, abrasive music that’s likely to leave you crushed and flattened by its driven intensity.

Erdve play blackened hardcore sludge, which essentially means that sludge and hardcore elements are thrown together violently, with the resulting smashed-together ugliness covered with black metal’s grim aesthetic atmospheres.

The singer has a vicious snarling shout that’s most enjoyable. His delivery fits the music well, and has an inherent darkness that complements the bleak wall-of-guitars approach that the music frequently adopts.

Although the songs certainly have a relentless intensity to them, the heaviness does drop down a notch here and there, allowing some gritty post-metal introspection to occur. This, coupled with the fact that the band can be quite darkly atmospheric when they want to be, means that Erdve have more than just sheer heaviness and aggression to offer the listener.

Imagine a blackened mix of Attan, Friendship, early Cult of Luna, and Primitive Man, and you’ll have a loose idea of where Erdve are coming from.

I liked this a lot. Erdve use intensity as a weapon, and they’ve very proficient in its use.

Loud, angry, devastating.