Rising through the fetid waters of the Dublin underground, serving time with prominent players like Coldwar, Mortichnia, Slave Zero and Wound Upon Wound along the way, the members of Fraught coalesced in 2018. After a short spell operating under the name Drought, they began their march together under the Fraught banner in 2020 – taking their truth and their filth laden riffs to the people of the Emerald Isle. Six years, one demo (MMXIX), one EP (Splitting Tongues) and one album (Transfixed On Dying Light) later they have found themselves in the cold embrace of Apocalyptic Witchcraft, a place they are more than happy to call home…
“Apocalyptic Witchcraft’s commitment to uncompromising artistic integrity and the highest standards the extreme metal underground has to offer makes them the ideal home for Fraught. We are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with a roster of some of the finest artists the scene has to offer.”
And Fraught and Apocalyptic Witchcraft are now ready to reveal the first fruits of this unholy alliance, a two-track EP entitled Pillar I: Ashes Of Verdant Collapse. This will be the first in a trilogy of EPs, that together will form one towering monstrosity of an album – but for now, Ashes Of Verdant Collapse offers more than enough to contend with. These virulent expressions of unfettered rage confront the way in which egotistical human exceptionalism permeates the assignment of worth to the natural world and the exploitation of its finite resources. As the band explains with an unflinching, powerful clarity…
“Mass production and consumption cyclically deplete natural capital and poison vital resources, degrading life itself. Humanity has become a species feeding on its own waste, a civilisation sustained by the poison it produces. Contamination has become the very foundation upon which we stake our future…Ashes of Verdant Collapse is a portrait of human triumph, rendered indistinguishable from total ecological annihilation.”
Opening track, ‘Death Assemblage’, is a furious assault of raw, primal death metal that sends adrenaline searing through the veins. It’s unrefined, bloody and desperate, fuelled by frustration and anger. Amidst the carnage moments of desolate beauty rise from the ruins, guitar lines that bring to the forefront of the mind that this rage is not directionless or unfocussed, it’s directed at the soulless, arrogant entities that feast on the remnants of all that is precious in this fading world. ‘Detritivore’ follows in ‘Death Assemblage’s wake, the sound of a bloated carcass given the sickening semblance of life by the busy, methodical movement of a funeral robe of flies. It’s a furious, hammering attack, the butchery of hypocrisy and deceit in sonic form. Sickening, utterly bereft of hope, it’s a spirit crushing, soul scouring experience. Sculpted from cavernous vocals and uncontrolled guitars bleeding feedback from a thousand wounds of neglect and abuse, ‘Detritivore’ ends in ear-bleeding, brain scarring noise that promises that this trip into the maw of our nightmare reality is far from over.
Recorded at Last Light Studios and mixed and mastered by Shauny Cadogan (Coscradh, Diocletian, Malthusian etc) Ashes Of Verdant Collapse sounds venomous, dangerous and defiant. Swathed in the damning artwork of Jamie Gavin, the first part of Fraught’s triptych of devastation will be unleashed by Apocalyptic Witchcraft, on limited edition cassette and digital formats, on November 7th.
Line up:
James Doporto – Vocals
Padraic Farrelly – Drums
David Greene – Guitars
Leigh Moran – Guitars & Backing Vocals
Andrew Coade – Guitars & Backing Vocals
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
For fans of: Akhlys | Bombs Of Hades | Deviated Instinct | Leadbelcher
Further information:
https://linktr.ee/Fraughtband
https://fraughtband.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3k0h0GRfEss7JBqYqmZNml
https://www.facebook.com/Fraughtband
https://www.instagram.com/fraught_official
https://apocalypticwitchcraft.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/apocalypticwitchcraftrecordings
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDgP-5LFFqEePVtNNWVQAqw
https://apocalypticwitchcraft.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/apocalypticwitchcraft/
