Spite – ‘Dedication to Flesh’ [Album Review]

Slamming straight out of the California Bay Area deathcore scene, Spite is back with Dedication To Flesh, the fourth album in a face-pummelling, nightmare-inducing career which stretches back to their self-titled debut released in 2015. Starting ominously with the brooding “Lord of the Upside Down,” it’s obvious from the getgo that Dedication To Flesh will be a wretchedly heavy album.

On that score, it doesn’t disappoint either. Through the pummelling “Caved In” and the nasty “Proper One,” Spite has to be congratulated for creating something so disgustingly bleak. Well, then they lurch into “Made to Please,” and the real nightmare begins. Creepy-as-fuck samples pierce the middle of the song, a track that is so crushingly dark that it really sends a shiver down your spine. It just keeps going as well. A neverending onslaught of sludgy, tarlike riffs held together by Joshua Slater’s skull-pounding beats, Dedication To Flesh takes you to some really, really dark places.

The whole unpleasant experience is topped off by Darius Tehrani and his serial killer howls. Each song, from the grinding title track to the sinister “Fear,” sees Tehrani deliver the performance of a lifetime. A combination of guttural roars and terrifying screams, his howls are the final piece of this very unpleasant musical jigsaw. They also fit perfectly into the dark, dank sound which Spite chugs out.

Now, whereas some bands that peddle this kind of soul-destroying sound stick to that path, thankfully, there are moments on this album where the mood lightens up a bit. Take tracks like “Some Things You Should Know…” and “Hangman,” finding a nice, crunchy groove clawing its way through this otherwise densely-packed sound. The album wraps up with the thunderous “Crumble” as the Cali deathcore maulers batter the last ounce of resistance you may have to what has been a gargantuan benchmark album for the deathcore scene.

Dedication to Flesh Track Listing:

1. Lord of the Upside Down
2. Caved in
3. Proper One
4. Made to Please
5. Some Things You Should Know…
6. Dedication to Flesh
7. The Most Ugly
8. Fear
9. The Son of Dawn
10. Sounds for the Descent
11. Hangman
12. Crumble

Run Time: 39:48
Release Date: August 19, 2022
Record Label: Rise Records