SonikGoat
Galloping out of the fetid tunnels of darkest London after twenty-something years of silence, Adorior stops by only for a brief moment—but fear ye not! They simply want to make sure you’re bloodied, trampled, set afire, and offered up to Satan. Then, they’ll be on their merry way. Oh, and if you want to hold on to your bottles of strong booze and unravished virgins, you’d better hide them somewhere safe, because Adorior has come for those as well. To enact pandemonium on the scale described, key contributors from the likes of Grave Miasma, Qrixquor, and Destroyer 666 are at the helm—in other words, noted veterans of the metal underground.
One thing this hack enjoys is when musicians of that level and experience attack old-school forms, and Bleed on My Teeth delivers high levels of raw aggression. Speed and thrash are liberally stirred into the cauldron, infused with the precision and intensity of contemporary black and death metal. The influence of the aforementioned bands is discernible to a degree: the relentless energy of Destroyer 666, the blasting intensity of Grave Miasma, and the occult shred of Qrixquor all shine through at various points. Other obvious comparisons include Divine Intervention-era Slayer and Texan black metal outfit Absu—especially their album Tara—thanks to the vocals of Jaded Lungs, who exhorts and shrieks her ripe, ribald pronouncements like some witchy biker-priestess.
When Adorior hits its stride, as it does on “Sips of Sarin,” “Scavengers of Vengeance,” and “Bleed on My Teeth,” it offers a pulverizing infusion of death metal blasting and blackened speed/thrash attitude, driven by Jaded Lungs’ almost bawdy, goading delivery. The mix is well-balanced and gives each element plenty of attention. While it’s perhaps a little muddy, that’s hardly unusual for the style and doesn’t detract much overall. Performance-wise, as you’d expect given the members’ pedigree, the album is super-tight. Molestör attacks the drums with a forceful style Paul Bostaph would be proud of, while Assassinator and Slutsodomizer push the black-thrashing riffs and whammy-bashing solos to their limits.
The biggest downside to Bleed on My Teeth is that each song runs well over five minutes, with several tracks stretching beyond the six-minute mark. This results in a few boggy moments within songs and across the album as a whole. Personally, I’d have trimmed a few tracks and kept the runtime to 30 or 40 minutes to maximize peak intensity. I also can’t shake the thought that the song order should have been different, especially in the case of “Begrime Judas,” which, to me, just isn’t an ideal opener.
There’s no doubt that Adorior live would be a formidable force, especially as a supporting act, where its fist-clenching, spike-waving intensity would give any opener a challenge. On record, Adorior remains a powerful entity, held back only by some overly long songs and a challenging runtime. With its strong Slayer influence spliced with blasting black/death and a charismatic, if limited, vocal performance, Bleed on My Teeth earns a pounding, pillaging sign of approval.
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Label: Sepulchral Voice Records/Dark Descent Records
Release date: 27 September, 2024
Website: https://www.facebook.com/adorior
Country: UK
Score: Some bloody approval, or 3.5/5.0!
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