At this point, I like to think of myself as a seasoned avant-garde death metal enjoyer – or, at least, as well-versed as one can be. I’ve mentioned in the past that avant-garde death metal is just death metal that pushes against the boundaries of its umbrella parent, indicating that music should not only be strange and off-putting, but also cohesive. Following my curiosity, I decided to see whether Hexrot’s newest full-length, Formless Ruin of Oblivion (Formless Ruin), meets that innate expectation. Let’s discuss.

Formless Ruin opens with “What Lies Veiled,” a rhythmic track that quickly changes gears into heavy dissonance with the vocals deep and guttural and the music sounding more akin to Imperial Triumphant than to Azure Emote. Of course, this doesn’t change as the album continues. While there are different tonal styles that change the music’s sound and pacing, Formless Ruin is an intense and ferocious onslaught of music that continuously shifts and moves in ways that one might consider impossible. Formless Ruin moves frenetically, as if trying to escape something, and its inherent dissonance only adds to the album’s overall feel. It feels amorphous on a cosmic scale, thriving within the vast expanse of space. There are moments of whiplash here that will absolutely color your experience, such as the brief melodic bridge in “Heavenward” before shifting back into that amorphous dissonance. Hexrot excels in keeping the listener in the dark about their various musical shifts, which are completely unexpected and serve as their way into some slight experimentation. Throughout most of Formless Ruin – except for the two instrumental tracks – Hexrot adds these little musical flourishes that helps each track from sounding the same, either by adding more blast beats to a specific section or by essentially making the instruments go off at the same time, resulting in chaos incarnate.

However, Formless Ruin does have some issues, and they become apparent with each new listen. For an album that is rooted in chaos, Hexrot’s technicality and instrumentation is intricate, layering sound and atmosphere into this expansive yet haunting space. However, the fact that it gets lost under what sounds like a layer of dust on the production feels as if we are being robbed. Outside of that, the only song that has the “avant-garde” feel – and, ironically, stands out against its production – is “What Lies Veiled,” a track whose backing electronics embodies this icy feel that comes from the ever-present dissonance that Hexrot excels in creating. I am sure their intent was to create music that sounded like it came from some eldritch dimension, moving quickly to either escape or embrace the horrors Hexrot encountered, but for it to get lost underneath the weight of their production feels like a crime.

As for the music itself, while there are flourishes of something different each time, such as the synths in “Heavenward” and the melodic backing in “Consecrating Luminous Conflagration,” Formless Ruin suffers from lack of musical diversity. The music essentially pushes onward until the final track, and that’s where Hexrot places all their experimentation and their various musical influences. If you are here for some thrashy blackened death metal, those first 20 minutes will be something to enjoy. However, if you are looking for the experimental, technical aspects that makes this album shine then closer “Formless Ruin of Oblivion” is the reward for getting to the end of the eldritch rainbow.

Despite my misgivings, Formless Ruin of Oblivion is an album that thrives in the innate understanding that genre is a label and while “avant-garde” feels appropriate, there’s something more complex underneath. Its chaos hides layers of intricate instrumentation that is worth peeling and peering into, given enough time. There’s something compelling and interesting to find here, and while this may not be the album for me, I still appreciate what the band has done. After all, Hexrot has created an album that will get under your skin if you let it, and that alone is worth the 35-minute runtime.

— Hera

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Formless Ruin of Oblivion will be available August 29 on Transcending Obscurity Records. For more information on Hexrot, visit their official Facebook and Instagram pages.