Baring Teeth are a death metal band from the US and this is their fourth album.
I last caught up with Baring Teeth almost a decade ago on 2014’s Ghost Chorus Among Old Ruins. They also had an album out in 2018, which I missed, (I’ll have to dig it out at some point), so The Path Narrows offers a good opportunity to catch up with the band once more. So what do Baring Teeth have to offer the discerning metal fan in 2023?
Baring Teeth offer an off-kilter collision of progressive, technical, and dissonant styles, delivered with cutting aggression and walls of impenetrable intricacy. The Path Narrows is not for the uninitiated, but for lovers of sonic extremity that are unafraid of abrasive complexity, there’s much here to commend itself.
The dense music is ripe with rich expressions of artistry and infused with darkly vibrant energy. Baring Teeth excel at blending sharp visceral aggression with the controlled construction of atypical soundscapes. The songs boast textured and layered progressive explorations, which the band perform with surgical, yet passionate, precision.
The Path Narrows is a record to be taken in holistically. Although the individual songs are absolutely strong creations in their own right, the record works best when taken as a whole. Across the album’s engaging flow you’ll experience many dark sights, sounds, and feelings, all capably delivered by a band that know how to conjure up unfamiliar landscapes from familiar building materials. Whether it’s caustic dissonant brutality or tense atmospheric terror, Baring Teeth have produced a compelling work.
Baring Teeth’s new record is an enjoyable exemplar of dissonant atmosphere and intricate intensity. Fans of bands such as Gorguts, Pyrrhon, Ad Nauseam, Ulcerate, Sunless, and Artificial Brain should definitely check this out.
Highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 