Review: Rot Coven ‘Nightmares Devour The Waking World’

With a name like Rot Coven and descriptions of ‘colossal sludge riffs’ and ‘psychedelic leads’ I had a pretty good idea of the style of music I was getting into when I decided to give Nightmares Devour The Waking World a listen.

The band cites Body Void, Godflesh, Melvins, and other similar artists as influences, so I expected something with lots of sludgy riffs, disgusting vocals and some industrial passages. Instead, I found myself awash in more industrial ambient passages than riffs. It may not be what the duo was going for, but I consider this as much an ambient album as a metal one, at least in Phase I.

Phase I

The first song on Phase I begins with heavy synths and industrial style percussion that reminds me of the video game Doom from 2016. If you have never played that game, the most basic description is as such: you navigate maps and fight a bunch of demons from room to room in industrial complexes and hell itself. The soundtrack is somewhere between industrial noise and djent.

Rot Coven does a fantastic job of creating soundscapes that would fit perfectly into the Doom world. It is gross and uncomfortable and pushes the boundaries of what music is. Listening to it in a dark room gives way to thoughts of wandering through catacombs or barrows whilst the rotting dead still wander.

It is gross and uncomfortable and pushes the boundaries of what music is…

I found Phase I to be an album that takes a very specific mood and undivided attention to truly get the full effect. Much of the playtime is ambient noise with heavy industrial overtones that slowly build into the climax of each track, that being sludge style riffs and heavily distorted vocals. I found the final track Those Who Worship Fallen Stars the most compelling.

Something else that gripped my attention was the percussion throughout. Along with the standard plodding doomy drums with plenty of toms, was janky trash percussion awash in reverb. I don’t use the word ‘janky’ as a negative description, it truly sounds like trash cans and bits of metal garbage played in a basement. It was one of my favorite aspects of the album.

Phase II

Phase II is only three tracks but is still a full-length album coming in around forty-five minutes. Inverted Chasm opens up much the same as Phase I; thick synths and ambient leads, but shortly drops the hammer with an absolutely massive bass riff drenched in distortion.

The percussion I described earlier is doubled down on, and the tortured and shrieked vocals join shortly. There are similar vibes to Phase I, with spacey leads and an extended ambient section with synths; but the quiet gives way to loud again as the song ends in spectacular fashion during the final minutes.

The second track, Psychological Contamination Zone, is a transitional instrumental piece between the first and last, creating a foreboding atmosphere with swelling synths without guitar or vocals.

thick synths and ambient leads, but shortly drops the hammer with an absolutely massive bass riff drenched in distortion…

The band has a formula as far as most of their song structure goes, introducing them with dark and atmospheric synths and methodically adding percussion into a slow build. Accretion Disk Necropolis is a perfect example of this and is my personal favorite track from both Phase I and Phase II.

It brings together a bit of everything from their catalogue and even adds some fast bits that are quite a shock after hearing everything leading up to them. A brilliant track that I find myself returning to much more often than the others.

Overall, a very ambitious effort but I found the electronic noise sections to drag on a bit, especially in Phase I. It is certainly worth a listen, especially for fans of dark industrial and ambient.

Label: Aesthetic Death
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp

Scribed by: Ben Brackin