International dissonant death metal collective Nightmarer has released their EP "Hell Interface," marking ten years of their complex, technical music. Since 2016, the band has released three EPs, two LPs, and a handful of singles. Their second and newest EP is only four songs, yet every second is stuffed with dissonant, atonal metal. I mean, they're signed to Total Dissonance Worship, so it makes sense.

"Extinction Burst" starts things off with a tense, rising buildup that unleashes into maniacal drumming, riffing, and growling. Every instrument sounds muted, but determined to break through it's mute so it can play at full power. Devilish, indeed. An unexpected, doom-like segment of tense atmosphere is thrown into the mix, which threw me off at first, but I adapted quickly. The savagery returns per genre standard, but the "calmer" parts of the track add an interesting flavor. There's even some clean singing near the end of the track, and feedback to round it all off. "Extinction Burst" is a song of many stylistic ideas, but none of them clash in an off-putting way.

"Shame Spiral" is quite sludgy. The down-tuned bass and guitars clash in a mire of sound, and the vocals poke through it. The vocals are clearer in this track, removing its dissonance. The whole track is quite painful; strained vocals, snare tones that could knock out a small child, and slogging tempos. "Shame Spiral" is a perfect name for the song, as I'm getting pulled by the ear in such a lethargic way. I just want to break free, but I'm trapped in this murky musical spiral. This song proves that dissonance doesn't always have to be overly technical.

I'm already tired, and there are two more songs to go. Alas, "Crawl of Time" continues the vibes of the previous song. Stoner metal anyone? Maybe? Well, whatever genre Nightmarer falls into, they sure know how to make a four-minute song sound like an hour. An enjoyable hour, don't get me wrong. The plodding groove returns, accompanied by a haunting chorus. The riffage at about halfway through gets chuggy, but never too chuggy to pick up the pace. I certainly felt like I was crawling through time with this track, and while I'll crawl a little bit more, I may want to start running again.

"Hell Interface" holds the responsibility of being the title track, but the pressure didn't get to it. Again, Nightmarer takes things slow for the majority of the piece. The cacophony of satisfying blast beats starts up, but stops suddenly for more guitar-laden passages. Then it starts up again! Then it slows back down. "Hell Interface" balances both speeds well and may be the best song on the EP by doing so.

If you only have so little time but need something brutal AND quite slow, Nightmarer's "Hell Interface" may be the EP for you. While I like my dissonant death metal to be a little more chaotic, I didn't mind Nightmarer taking their time creating dark, musical landscapes in five-minute-long chunks. It's a nice listen, so pick it up digitally on Bandcamp for free, or grow a spine and throw them a couple bucks.