Although nascent in their metamorphoses Roman retro-futurist, post-modernist, progressive death metal duo Bedsore find greater meaning in spinning back the clock to 2014 and vaulting off of the tragic dissolution of Morbus Chron following ‘Sweven’, a watery, dream-like, example of post-Autopsy spiritual brutality with endless potential. Far from a literal continuation of any other artist Bedsore are a further-reaching, deftly atmospheric reflective surfacing of the modern psychotropic realms of underground death metal shrugged off by some (Tribulation) and championed by others (Execration, Sepulcher, Ghastly). Formed as a side-project between S.A. and J.G.P. who had been band-mates in black metal/post-rock outfit Angew before both would come to focus on similar project Seventh Genocide since around 2015; There is some greater history of meandering in their collective past but, nothing as gloriously mind-melting as this first strike at Bedsore.

What manifests beyond cues of their aim and influences is a two song, roughly twenty minute traversal of death metal’s primal existential pains and post-black metallic melodramatic soul agitation. Bedsore are determined hikers towards slow-motion leaps into great chasmic drifts that appear with some irregular frequency; The trip is both captivating and stymieing in its seeming progressive extremes of shouted movements and extended, void-like post-rock saunter. Less reminiscent of the non-linear King Crimsonian travaillés of Morbus Chron (or Ensnared, even) and more of a full-on escape pod away from consciousness hinted at in more recent Venenum releases, ‘Bedsore’ is as much a lullaby as it is a reeking hole of ache and frustration. But are there riffs?

The mind will naturally cast aside any riff offered in favor of the greater intensity of the long atmospheric breaks that Bedsore so deftly curate. Without a progression of style offered up to this point, the demo merely offers a new take on a familiar concept in two movements. Loud, quiet, loud with alternating points of interest and intensity with a sharpened sense of transition. Without these connections appearing natural there would be no art to the gorgeous flow of Bedsore‘s demonstration and herein lies the valuable meditative quality of this style of death metal. It is perhaps wildly cliche to suggest that a demo is ‘promising’ and I’d almost rather counter that obvious notion with the suggestion that if the death metal riffs felt more personal, slightly more challenging, the entirety of the demo would feel less familiar and warrant less frequent mention of influence or resemblance. Yet, if left unchanged and extended into a solid forty minutes Bedsore‘s cosmic bipolarity is a prospect I would throw money at immediately. Highly recommended.

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