{"id":104408,"date":"2025-01-03T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T00:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=104408"},"modified":"2025-01-10T16:35:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:35:37","slug":"album-review-mutagenic-host-the-diseased-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-mutagenic-host-the-diseased-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"MUTAGENIC HOST – The Diseased Machine (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUTAGENIC HOST
The Diseased Machine<\/strong><\/span>
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\nMemento Mori \/ Dry Cough \/ Gurgling Gore (2025)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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In a world ravaged by artificial intelligence, London, England-based death metal troupe Mutagenic Host wade through the human debris with a debut album that provides the perfect soundtrack to its own warnings. Admittedly underwhelmed by the band\u2019s 2023 demo, I decided to have faith in this full-length and have been rewarded for my own perseverance.<\/p>\n

Unlike last year\u2019s disappointing Maul outing (In The Jaws Of Bereavement<\/em><\/a>), Mutagenic Host, even with the occasional blackened hardcore sways, still manage to cough up a bruising death metal debut built upon chugging riffs and an all round sense of guttural construction and destruction. The bulbous groove-laden riffs alone act as mighty immovable pillars amidst a sea of landscape smoke and sky dust. You can put these marauders in the same billowing bluster as Celestial Sanctuary for utmost grinding, thumping percussion and husky horror, all running in pulverising yet measured tandem with those immense and memorable riffs.<\/p>\n

Somewhat focused on the end of days, The Diseased Machine<\/em> provides the perfect mix of smouldering and slamming while maintaining a bleak outlook as yarns are spun as bleak, apocalyptic tales born from sci-fi yet funnelled into harsh reality. An essence of Bloodbath is evident throughout The Diseased Machine<\/em>; well driven fat chunks of mid-to-late 90s Swedish belligerence coupled with a meaty Floridian vibe and laced with a blackened hardcore aggression.<\/p>\n

The tracks are kept relatively simple; either charging with a HM-2 infectious precision or delivered as mid-tempo slabs of concrete. There\u2019s nothing subtle about the ground n\u2019 pound stranglehold of this opus which rolls like a bulldozer, flattening all in its wake via a selection of colossal riffage. Exhibit A is the gargantuan juggernaut stomp of \u2018Incomprehensible Methods Of Slaughter\u2019 that clanks along with its mid-tempo drudgery of bass, percussion and chesty vocal chops of Ash Moore.<\/p>\n

This is hefty, burly pulsating material that throbs with a grinding persuasion and hardcore brutality personified by another mammoth slab in the form of \u2018Organometallic Assimilation\u2019 as again the riffs, bass and percussion act as destructive punches to the delicate cranium of the listener. As the visions of an eroded planet, more so focused on a plague-ridden London emerge, Mutagenic Host\u2019s dystopian eruptions force one to envisage a stark, looming horror. At times the riffs are blackened flurries that border upon a thrashing menace (\u2018Artificial Harvest Of The Obscene\u2019 and \u2018The Twisted Helix\u2019), while with \u2018S.W.A.R.M. (Systematic War Against Restless Machines)\u2019 there is a pummeling mixture of jarring riffage and jerks of haste.<\/p>\n

Riff after monstrous riff churns from the conveyor belt, and while the band rarely does anything that different it\u2019s simply down to the titanic nature of the grooves that they succeed within their framework. \u2018Genestealer\u2019 is another behemoth, initially stomping with mid-paced clogs before thrashing like some apocalyptic wind.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s refreshing that Mutagenic Host delivers its cacophony bereft of swampiness like so many bands within the current saturated genre. Sure, there\u2019s nothing remotely unorthodox about the approach from the guys, but when you\u2019re taking on the power of A.I. then you require a massive armoury to dispose of its negative influence and Mutagenic Host have it in droves.<\/p>\n

As the blustery \u2018Promethean Dusk\u2019 and the churning, mashing \u2018Rivers Of Grief\u2019 round this debut off I\u2019m once again blown away by the talent within this ever burgeoning UK death metal scene. For meat and muscle, Mutagenic Host\u2019s debut album provides the perfect savagery and security in a world that with every passing day feels less like our own.<\/p>\n

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

MUTAGENIC HOSTThe Diseased Machine Memento Mori \/ Dry Cough \/ Gurgling Gore (2025)Rating: 8\/10 In a world ravaged by artificial intelligence, London, England-based death metal troupe Mutagenic Host wade through the human debris with a debut album that provides the perfect soundtrack to its own warnings. Admittedly underwhelmed by the band\u2019s 2023 demo, I decided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5854],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-mutagenic-host"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104408","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=104408"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104412,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104408\/revisions\/104412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}