Back in stock. The anonymous group operating under the name Dead In The Manger returns with their first full-length Cessation, the follow-up to last year's impressive Transience EP. And as with their debut, the band offers a vicious strain of blackened blast-metal, though this time they build on the moments of atmospheric power that were glimpsed on the 12", expanding that aspect of their sound into even more dramatic form. The band's black metal influences comprise only a portion of their overall sound; when the album opens with "I" (the first of six numerically designated track titles), the stark, doleful guitars play over a bed of soft staticky hiss, reminding me more of the elegiac slowcore of Codeine or Slint for a moment, a tense build into that first song's explosive outburst of violent, mournful energy. From there, Dead In The Manger race through these blasts of viciously fast, intense blackened grind, weaving in bits of depressive melody and bursts of pulverizing doom, the occasional ambient noisescape, and a few more traces of that gloomy math rock in the guitars. They can slow things down to punishing effect as well, cutting massive swathes of droning, almost Godfleshian sludge throughout some of these songs, unleashing a simple but powerful riff that repeats ad nauseum amid peals of tortured feedback and squealing guitar noise. Just about every one of these songs features one of their moody, sorrowful melodies, though, and the vocals are used sparingly, a scathing, reptilian rasp that bleeds heavily into the slower, crushing passages. When they're going at top speed, it's blindingly fast, more grindcore than anything, frostbitten blastbeats racing beneath sorrowful chord progressions like something off of White Birch and streaked with regal tremolo-picked leads. It's all put together really well, elevated by strong songwriting chops and their knack for those grimly majestic guitar leads and melodies, further distinguishing their music from the hordes of black metal influenced stuff out there. Recommended.