Immersion, the third album from Denver death-sludge trio Primitive Man, is the album 2020 deserves. A six-song, 35-minute descent into Hell, Immersion stares down the state of current world affairs: distrust among people, existential crises and the race for mutually-assured destruction.
At 35 minutes, Immersion is dramatically shorter than Primitive Man’s previous albums, 2013’s Scorn and 2017’s Caustic. By the time album closer “Consumption” fades out, Primitive Man have assailed the listener with so much anger, depression, tension, misery and pure, grating noise that there isn’t much left in the tank.
Primitive Man’s visual side has always matched the music, courtesy of frontman Ethan McCarthy, whose penchant for design is somehow almost darker than the music he makes. They’ve released some genuinely unsettling music videos in the past and the video for “Consumption,” the closing track on Immersion, is no different, showing distorted faces and other imagery that would feel perfectly at home in a horror movie.
McCarthy’s explanation of the video—and the album in general—is simple.
“Hell is here, right now,” he tells Decibel.
Watch the video for “Consumption” below. Immersion is out now and available through Relapse.
