Squama Germany Vinilo y CD

Review: Old school Wisconsin based thrash-inflected death metal mammoths, Jungle Rot, make their Unique Leader debut with, A Call To Arms; the follow up to their crushing 2018 self-titled effort. With seasoned, visceral chops honed throughout the seminal nineties era, the band are an ironic outlier residing on a roster of slamming deathcore acts who all owe retrospective credence. Invoking their moniker and artwork with images of voodoo occultism, the decrepit, Lovecraftian design shrouds the jagged riffage, guttural vocals and claustrophobic percussion in a cosmic, otherworldly atmosphere.

Review: Even in its sparsest moments it's impossible to hide from the funk that 'Runden' seems to have been built upon, a bedrock of toe-tapping, head-nodding groove that's infectious as hell, making for some real ear worm tracks that take hold and refuse to let go - whether that's the laidback 1960s espionage movie score-worthy 'Mikado', the sparse plucks and stabs of 'Horch' or sexiest of the lot, 'Parallellen'.

It's hard to really put your finger on genres here - this entirely instrumental collection owes a debt to jazz and funk yet isn't really either. Its arrangements often follow the patterns set out in more open-mined and freewheeling electronica, but it's entirely organic and natural in sound. Perhaps oxymoronic, then, despite the obvious contradictions the recipe makes for a coherent and incredibly intelligent whole.