Distant – Dawn of Corruption (Review)

This is the latest EP from Distant, a deathcore band from the Netherlands.

Sometimes you just want a hit of something thunderously heavy. 2019’s Tyrannotophia was one such hit, (more like a smash), so when Dawn of Corruption was unveiled, I knew I was in for a fresh beating.

Weighing in at a lightweight 19 minutes, this lean release nonetheless has a heavyweight punch. This is heavy heavy heavy stuff. Like, really heavy. Some of these breakdowns have breakdowns built into them. Distant are a band that make no bones about what they are, and their slammage is violently direct, brutally straightforward, and devastatingly effective.

In case you missed the memo, Distant play a slam-friendly form of death metal downtempo deathcore, or some similar assemblage of those keywords. DEATHCORE. SLAM. SMASH! Etc. As you may have guessed at this point; they do this rather well. Importantly though, and easy to overlook, is the quality with which they do this. The band’s slamming heaviness is formed into coherent, enjoyable songs and backed up by an underlying atmospheric dissonance that can be downright malevolent on occasion.

If you’re somehow not sold yet, then the EP also features guests in the form of the ex-guitarist of Aborted and the singer of Ingested. So there’s that.

Dawn of Corruption is just what the doctor ordered, if what was ordered was a hefty dose of slamming brutality.

Highly recommended.