This is the third album from US death metallers Nothingness.
Following on from 2023’s very well-received Supraliminal comes Godslaughter, which provides us with 41 minutes of new material. Nothingness continue to elevate themselves. In the death metal killing arenas, they take skulls and grisly trophies increasingly easily.
So, Godslaughter. Is it God Slaughter, or God’s Laughter? This is the important question, of course. Either way, it works – this is murderous music, but it kills with a smile and a song in its heart.
Nothingness play an interesting, well-constructed brand of death metal. Godslaughter offers a compelling mix of dissonance, brutality, atmosphere, and melody. There are elements of both classic and modern styles in their sound, making for a record that’s well-rounded and frighteningly competent. If you haven’t met Nothingness before, then the promo blurb’s statement that this is for fans of acts like Aeviterne, Gorguts, Morbid Angel, and Nightmarer, should give you a decent starting point.
Despite the music’s use of occasional blackened darkness, doom structuring, and experimental creativity, Godslaughter ramps up the aggression overall. This is a brutal, vicious piece of work. However, it’s still Nothingness, so also offers a greater degree of nuance, ideas, and worldbuilding than is the norm. Nothingness have a talent for unleashing creative hostility. Belligerent riffs and rhythms are also regularly striking or potently delivered, making the listener sit up and pay attention, at least until said riff or rhythm smacks them right in the face.
Rather than making use of traditional songwriting, Nothingness perform the role of diviners of unholy truths, examining twitching entrails for signs and portents. As a result, the songs twist and convulse, but in meaningful ways. It’s technical and adventurous when it wants to be, but lacks tech death’s frequent reliance on ostentatious emptiness or prog death’s tendencies for aimless wandering. Instead, we get treated to a record where all aspects of the music make sense, and serve a purpose. This is true both acutely within any given track, and holistically across the album’s duration. Everything on Godslaughter is deliberately fleshed out in bloodsoaked detail. It does take periodic detours along the carnage-filled paths it stalks, but these are chosen on purpose, not at random. Nothingness know very well what they want to achieve on Godslaughter, and achieve it they do.
The return of Nothingness is a triumph. Godslaughter is superior death metal. The music has surely been fed to the band directly by ravenous gods of darkness straight from the abyssal depths, only to be vomited forth across nine tracks of sonic extremity. This is purely for our listening pleasure, of course, and couldn’t possibly be part of some unknowable, far-reaching malevolent end game, right? Right?
Play your part in the encroaching apocalypse by hungrily devouring Godslaughter. You know it makes sense.
Essential listening.
Wonderbox Metal 