Geist – Swarming Season LP (Cursed Monk Records)

Geist were always somewhere on my ”to check out” list, but honestly, somehow I never gave them any chance because of my necessity to overcrowd myself with newer releases. What terrible mistake I’ve made because I ignored their music for so long. Seriously, this is some incredible stuff, if you’re deep into some extreme underground music. Swarming Season is their latest offering and such a great continuation of their previous works. For those who are not familiar with this band, Geist are deeply into hardcore punk music, but with a huge involvement of genres such as sludge, grindcore and crust punk. Swarming Season is a heavy record, hard to chew at some points, but digestible enough to force you to listen to it over and over again. It possesses a lot of kinda downtempo elements which are characteristic for a modern powerviolence music, but Geist are going even further by incorporating fundamentals of powerviolence as well. They are also sticking to the metalcore elements and you might recognize some similarities with bands such as Integrity, Catharsis or Tragedy, but with a lot more blastbeats, wonderful breaks and crazy drum fills. Guitars are heavy as hell, evil sounding, riffs are quite impressive and well arranged. The eerie sound of a bass guitar is filling the gaps between guitars and drums, it’s distorted at some points, and it possesses a massive tone which gives enormous power to this recording. Vocals are dynamic, powerful, and evil enough to perfectly fit this fine blend of eerie cacophony. The record might sound depressive at some points, but I guess that was the Geist’s intent. They reflect all the darkness of this world and they’re doing it like professionals. Swarming Season has been published on vinyl by Cursed Monk Records and it comes with a beautiful cover artwork comprised of swarm invading a female character. The cover is dark, dirty and goes great with the material presented on this incredible record, so give them a listen if you haven’t already.