It's notable that Cosmic Atrophy's Codex Incubo is the first death metal album that Suffering Jesus has ever released. We normally look to the Canadian label for low-fi weirdo black metal, and it was Suffering Jesus who first turned me on to the genius black metal-meets-70's-hard-rock of Tjolgtjar (who also have a brand new album out through the label called Ikarikitomidun Lord of The Forest that's listed in this weeks new arrivals update). As part of such esteemed company as Tjolgtjar, Aanal Beehemoth, Malveillance and Xexyz, I had high expectations for the labels first death metal outing, and hoped for something outside of the typical DM fare. The Texan duo Cosmic Atrophy are indeed weird, and idiosyncratic, playing a wonky style of sci-fi death metal that has a killer early 90's feel. And fans of strange death metal are going to want to check out Codex Incubo for sure; the band describes their music "Demilich meets Incantation", and that is a an accurate if simplified assessment. The crazed complexities and avant-shred of Finland's Demilich are combined with the evil doomy discordance of Incantation here, to brutal effect. Codex is crushing but adventurous, each of the seven tracks a dense construct of reptilian doom passages and angular, dissonant riffage that flails over bursts of manic speed, with constantly shifting rhythmic patterns and tempos; the drumming is fantastic and mixes things up regularly, creating a churning undercurrent of seething dirge and chaotic blastbeats, shuffling jazz-like percussion and waves of relentless tom rolls. The dissonant riffs and textural chords are a big part of the alien death metal sound of Cosmic Atrophy, and there is alot of playing on the album that reminds me of the avant-garde guitar stylings of Voivod and Gorguts. Vocals shift between powerful death metal gurgling and these bizarre quasi-Viking vocals that show up in a couple of spots, and there is at least one part when the bass breaks out into some crazy slap/funk playing. The last track chucks the death metal altogether and ends the album with a swirling mass of Lustmord-esque dark ambience. Lots of weird shit going on, but they keep it tight and focused. This is a great disc of doomy mutoid-death, loaded with intricate riff arrangements and bizarre riffs, and immersed in a weird narrative concept that deals with ancient technologies, bizarre interdimensional horrors and other Lovecraftian sci-fi concepts. If yer a fan of adventurous, avant and/or mutant death metal, stuff like Demilich, Gorguts, and Cynic, etc., you should give these guys a listen!