Mortality makes us human. Or, at least, it informs what we’ve become and how we’ve structured our societies—the ages at which we learn life, grow life, enter work, exit work, and the challenges of seemingly limited time to achieve each step. Yet, though we know our conscious time on this earth is finite, its flow often resembles less the smooth river and more the creek which swells and surges and ruptures and dries and dies, its turns unpredictable. Though assembled for over a decade at this juncture, Immortal Bird has seen several members blow through in the namesake of their Windy City Chicago home, but remains anchored in extremity by the persistence of Rae Amitay (Errant, Thrawsunblat) in finding partners in riff, rhythm, and ruckus. And though held to no defined release schedule, Immortal Bird has flocked again enough to conjure Sin Querencia.
Always straddling the line between a blackened snarl, a deathly pummel, and a hardcore shuffle, Immortal Bird’s patchwork attack hits as equal parts curious and aloof with Sin Querencia landing no differently. As Amitay has found greater vocal expression over the years, with side ventures Errant and Wretched Blessing being closer to solo endeavors, a fuller range of techniques splatters Sin Querencia to give it fresh life against what came before. The dominant lyrical character that accompanies the dissonant and frosty pick drives (“Consanguinity,” “Contrarian Companions”), which wouldn’t sound out of place in a Gargiulo project like Artificial Brain or Dreamless Veil, remains a distorted high-range screech and lower tunneled howl, but interjections of a ghastly, cutting clean croon add layers of space and intrigue when the music recedes to a creeping crawl (“Bioluminescent Toxins,” “Contrarian Companions”). Immortal Bird remains determined to develop their already dense sound.
Yet, it’s not a labyrinthian instrumental construction that swerves the Bird about a progressive nature, but rather a keen sense of song structure and how to break it. Each piece on Sin Querencia develops its own way of wrapping around its main refrain or melody. Frequently, Immortal Bird lives on the captivating nature of their riff structures, in lieu of traditional hooky choruses or virtuosic leads, and uses contrasting discordant or otherwise exceedingly bright chord interjections to modulate, crescendo, and drive away (“Bioluminescent Toxins,” “Plastered Sainthood,” “Contrarian Companions”). Even when tracks veer toward a standard verse-chorus structure, Immortal Bird find ways to stretch a coda to its breaking point with vicious vocal punctuations (“Propagandized”) or sneak in the lone squealed-out solo (“Sin Querencia”) against an increasingly jagged bass stumble.
Given the heavily guitar-driven stance that Immortal Bird continues to take with each of their outings thus far, it makes sense that they choose a production style that boosts that amplified presence. Whether darting about the classic Immortal riff chase (“Ocean Endless,” “Sin Querencia”) or driving pits with stenched-out hammerfests (“Plastered Sainthood,” “Propagandized”), a volume and weight of six-stringed tone lands with a practiced and cutting precision that moves every song forward effortlessly. In a similarly brash and distracting manner, Matt Korajczyk’s kit finds both welcome cymbal spread in down moments and unwelcome snare explosions during oft-occurring blast and heavy skank sections. After spending a lot of time with Sin Querencia, I’ve grown accustomed to that kind of pummel—and it’s far from the only offender in this realm in metal history. But moments like the snare roll before the second clean vocal passage in “Bioluminescent Toxins” and the general balance of the tapping close on “Propagandized” show that the kit doesn’t have to live with constant boosting to be impactful.
Immortal Bird has not made any steps in becoming a more accessible band, but that hardly matters when the music they do produce remains interesting enough to dissect repeatedly. And even if you don’t want to do that, this presentation of a modern hybrid of black, death, crust, and whatever other influence the Bird sees fit holds enough of a riff-forward attitude to moisten the earholes of a neck-whipping bystander. These tenants of metal, to riff to rollick to rumble, cannot be destroyed so long as bands continue find eclectic ways to bend and bruise them in a manner befitting of a wanting crowd—immortal in extremity. So while Sin Querencia doesn’t build a new home to house the flayed ideas of Immortal Bird, it doesn’t need to to remain enjoyable as a snappy drive through riff city.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: 20 Buck Spin | Bandcamp
Websites: immortalbird.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/immortalbirdband
Releases Worldwide: October 18th, 2024