Anatomia

By now, Anatomia should require little introduction. For nearly twenty years, this Japanese cult have explored the darkest and most deranged ends of the death-doom spectrum. Theirs is a sound that’s intrinsically tied to tradition yet evinces a wealth of weirdness, making their sound both classic and challenging in equal measure. And while their countless split recordings are beloved by the band’s ever-growing legions of fans, it is Anatomia’s full-lengths where they truly dive into the deep end, exploring subterranean expanses of the subconscious and sound itself, making each of their three judiciously-spaced-apart albums unique experiences unto themselves. 
The same can be said for Anatomia’s long-awaited fourth album, Corporeal Torment. Although it’s been merely four years since the critically acclaimed Cranial Obsession —that span of time rather quick between Anatomia albums—Corporeal Torment offers a more concise and daresay “energetic” counterpart to its epically mammoth predecessor. Then again, with tempos rarely kicking above a sludgy gallop as set forth by early heroes Autopsy, it’s not long before second track “Slime of Putrescence” drags the listener well and truly into the void of nulled-senses atmospherics. Indeed, this band’s grasp of mesmerizing mood and dynamics they so masterfully displayed across the aforementioned predecessor is flexed even more fully on their latest: more extremes between crushing and quiet, BPMs often dialed back into the negatives, and reverberating textures that occasionally recall musique concrète. In fact, the slipstream of energy into inertia as the album throbs onward becomes a vortex that’s nigh impossible to escape...but perhaps that was never an option when one steps into Anatomia’s claustrophobic cocoon of death-doom. No hyperbole and no hope, Corporeal Torment is punctuation to the end.