{"id":104102,"date":"2024-10-16T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T23:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=104102"},"modified":"2024-10-21T11:16:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T10:16:57","slug":"album-review-extorted-cognitive-dissonance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-extorted-cognitive-dissonance\/","title":{"rendered":"EXTORTED – Cognitive Dissonance (2024) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

EXTORTED
Cognitive Dissonance<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSelf-released (2024)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Some seriously good death-thrash comes your way here for a talented New Zealand mob known as Extorted. Cognitive Dissonance<\/em> is a barnstormer of a debut full-length album created by Joel Campbell (vocals), Ivan Roberts (lead guitar), Diego Pasqual Del Pobil (rhythm guitar), Brad Lucas (bass) and Bryce Tozer (drums).<\/p>\n

From the striking cover art \u2013 provided by who else but Ed Repka \u2013 to Joel Campbell\u2019s Chuck Schuldiner (Death) styled gasps, this is a fantastic record that\u2019s up there with some of the year\u2019s beat releases. As \u2018Deception\u2019 chugs along one does feel as if they\u2019re experiencing a thrashier version of Death, and yet such is the energy and talent for writing catchy songs everything about Cognitive Dissonance<\/em> sounds fresh.<\/p>\n

\u2018Infected\u2019 begins with a tirade of serrated riffing alongside hyper drums as the band construct a classic 80s thrash replica. The leads swirl crisp and clear as the pace drops to a measured menace. It\u2019s impossible to not hear the Death influence, but Extorted do break up the mimicry with some traditional metal episodes such as on the title track, which also boasts a dose of doomier flair.<\/p>\n

\u2018Violence\u2019 is another killer song stiffened by the pound of the drums as again the band fuses slower, methodical segments with aggressive bursts of speed. Imagine if you will Death combining their debut classic Scream Bloody Gore<\/em> (1987) with some if their later works such as Human<\/em> (1991).<\/p>\n

\u2018Transformation Of Dreams\u2019 is another example of the Death worship, although the expected intricacy only comes via the drums, but again there\u2019s that knack they have of being soulfully accessible and almost wistful when the solos caress the layers of jagged extremity.<\/p>\n

Extorted are more than happy to wear their influences on their sleeves as \u2018Ghastly Creatures\u2019 nods towards the thrashier side of German outfit Morgoth and Netherlands posse Pestilence.<\/p>\n

Bereft of originality, Extorted\u2019s debut still maintains enough throwback savagery even if I\u2019m somewhat baffled by the aping. After all, Gruesome did this a few years ago.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXTORTEDCognitive Dissonance Self-released (2024)Rating: 7.5\/10 Some seriously good death-thrash comes your way here for a talented New Zealand mob known as Extorted. Cognitive Dissonance is a barnstormer of a debut full-length album created by Joel Campbell (vocals), Ivan Roberts (lead guitar), Diego Pasqual Del Pobil (rhythm guitar), Brad Lucas (bass) and Bryce Tozer (drums). From […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5809],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-extorted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104103,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104102\/revisions\/104103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}