Belching out music crafted around the intriguing idea of a mythical beast that, upon waking from an involuntary cryogenic slumber, ravaged all those who had helped him convalesce, gaining a timely and ferocious taste for human blood – this is The Abominable Iron Sloth.

Sadly this is not a real-life, knuckle-dragging colossus, it is actually the formidable musical brainchild of Will Haven guitarist Cayle Hunter and his former Oddman colleague Justin Godfrey, who assumes screaming and songwriting duties, this is a behemoth of collaboration. It may well be a one off but – through sheer brute force – will surely leave a deep and indelible mark on the heavy metal fraternity.

Formed in the dark depths of the Sacramento heavy music scene some years ago, Iron Sloth played many shows as a duo before more recently realising their dreams and recruiting Mike Martin, Jeff Irwin and Mitch Wheeler from Will Haven to fill in the gaps. They proceeded to bludgeon out these works of unfathomable deviance. It is doubted that they’ve even created words to describe how inconceivably brutal this is.

It all takes under a half hour to exhaust you absolutely – mentally, physically, every single way – but this eponymous offering kicks off with the ridiculously titled _‘Hats Made Of Veal And That New Car Scent’ _and crikey, it’s the equivalent of aural paint stripper. Monolithic thunder comes stomping out of the stereo, not even waiting to crash upon on you in a heaving fury of unimaginable rage.

It’s a familiar theme that runs throughout. The mythical imagery is sparse around the sludgiest of sludge in _‘Parasite Hilton And Other Flaws Inherent To Wealth’ _but Iron Sloth’s discontent and scepticism of modern life is clear to be seen in the total absence of all melody. Indeed, _‘I Am The Carcass’ _throws forth a form of noise you won’t have heard since Raging Speedhorn’s halcyon days of majestically skidding thuggery. You’ll be hard pushed to call anything here a “song”.

You won’t have heard anything this far downtuned, as slowed down or just anything as downright dirty as this for a long while. If *The Abominable Iron Sloth *signals the backlash to metalcore then I welcome the new scene whole-heartedly, because this rips your face clean off in the best possible way.