Hyperdontia – Nexus of Teeth

September 2018 – Dark Descent Records

More Dark Descent material – and these guys are almost family to them, having the same vocalist as Phrenelith/Undergang and sharing a guitarist with Sulphurous as well as a the same recording studio. The differentiating factor here is the riffs – while they haven't foregone the tremolo-picked sections one would expect from bands signed to Dark Descent, they've certainly toned them down in favour of actual riffs, spicing them with pinch harmonics and classic chromatic single-note lines.

While the riffs contribute to a much more memorable album, the songwriting helps burn it into memory by creating natural flows from build-up to apex, mixing mid-tempo and faster sections masterfully, as well as a couple quasi-death/doom parts such as the intro to Majesty. The latter serve as a good break from an otherwise intense album, and allow some slight showing-off by the drummer and bassist – specifically during Escaping the Mortal Embodiment. It's also one of only time the bass rises to a more than supportive level, both in volume and in play.

There's almost nothing pretty about the album, as expected, though the leads do sometimes verge on melodic, in the special dissonant sense that death metal does so well. The somewhat clearer production Nexus of Teeth was blessed with gives room for the solos to expand more than they would on an average cavernous death metal album, as well as giving the rhythm guitars tightly-wound tones, empowering their already excellent riffs.

Nexus of Teeth is a contender for 2018s most eye-catching death metal album cover, painted by Paolo Girardi. The man's done a lot of cover art for Inquisition, though one of my favourite of his pieces is Le Dernier Crepuscule by Chthe'ilist. The Nexus of Teeth cover is fitting, a mass of flesh and teeth curling around screaming faces, as one would envision a distorted, extreme example of hyperdontia. Existence Denied closes the album with a fading-out lead, but not before introducing the catchiest riffs the band has to offer so far – a strong closer, and a standard to which I hope Hyperdontia hold themselves in the future.

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