Black Tongue – “The Unconquerable Dark” [Album Review]

When I saw Hull brutalists Black Tongue supporting Suicide Silence on their UK tour last year, I witnessed not only a band who were churning out one of the most pungent, putrid sounds I’d heard in a long time but, also, in frontman Alex Teyen, a man with a stare that could stop a man dead in his tracks from fifty paces. Put the two together and the end result is disturbing to say the least.

The Unconquerable Dark is their first full-length proper, after having set the tone with a couple of downright filthy sounding EPs and, as “Plague Worship” drops in, it’s obvious these filth merchants have just upped their game. Maybe it is from touring with bands of the caliber they’ve been touring with or maybe they’re really finding their feet because there is something about the distorted, sludgy riffs, the sinster air and Teyen’s foul vocals that really put Black Tongue in a new league.

It isn’t all just punishing, unrelenting brutality though – the band layer in a really unnerving aura which just gives the whole thing an unpleasant feel to it so much so that, as you listen the slow, monotonous dirge of “Prince Of Ash,” you find yourself wanting to scrub yourself clean with a wire brush.

Elsewhere on the album, Eddie Hermida of Suicide Silence and CJ of Thy Art Is Murder both put in an appearance with guest vocals. CJ’s track, “I’m Sick of Sighing. Please Lord Let It Be Night” brings this unholy collection of songs to a hellish finale as the UK heavyweights level the opposition with a sound that has just taken heavy music to new depths of despair.

Track Listing:

01. Plague Worship
02. In The Wake ov the Wolf
03. Young Gloom
04. L’appel du Vide
05. Vermintide (ft. Eddie Hermida)
06. Prince of Ash
07. The Masquerade
08. A Pale Procession ii: Death March
09. I’m so Tired of Sighing. Please Lord Let It Be Night (ft. CJ McMahon)

Run Time: 45:45
Release Date: September 4, 2015

Check out the song “In the Wake ov the Wolf” here.