Not a lot of light gets into the self-titled debut 7-inch by Negative Prayer. Across three songs of punishing, death metal-infused D-beat, the duo of Kyle House (ex-Poison Idea, ex-Vastum) and Charles Koryn (Funebrarum, VoidCeremony) build a monument to total negativity. The song titles – “Morbid,” “Hell,” and “Noose” – will go a long way in helping you crack what’s going on here. These dudes aren’t fucking around.
That’s not to say Negative Prayer is an especially tough sit; the songs are memorable enough to keep you pressing play again after each 10-minute burst of nihilistic dyspepsia subsides. The performances, especially House’s colorful stabs of lead guitar and Koryn’s pummeling fills, are deceptively sprightly for music this fixated on darkness. When House ends closing track “Noose” with a disgusting, inhuman growl and a phlegmy “FUCKER,” it provides the perfect exclamation point on the no-nonsense crust punk pounding that proceeded it. We’ve got the whole thing streaming a day early. Listen, preorder, and read a cheery statement on Negative Prayer from House below. Fucker.
“Negative Prayer is about rage, internalized violence, depression and anxiety. Being trapped in a body, a human cage. A psyche wired to a nervous system brutally conditioned through systemic violence and oppression to be a machine. Hell.”
Find North American preorders at Carbonized Records HERE or the Carbonized Bandcamp page HERE.
Find European preorders at Seed Of Doom Records HERE or the Seed Of Doom Bandcamp page HERE.
