It starts with some sort of static feedback thing, like energy trying to claw its way out of a fissure . . . etched into a monolith . . . at the bottom of the ocean . . . in space. It eventually emerges—primeval, eldritch, cosmic. It sounds like something Lovecraft would call nameless. It’s called “Fissured Cosmos.” It’s the first track of the debut EP by COMPRESS, an extreme metal foursome out of Massachusetts, US. The EP is “The Final Level of Consciousness,” released on March 15, 2024 via Eternal Death. It has the base aesthetic of Black, the grayhaze ambiance of Atmospheric, and the swarthy sensibilities of Sludge. It also suffers from periodic outbreaks of Death. It is glorious and awful to behold.

True to their moniker, COMPRESS is about intensity and density and unforgiving gravity. The production quality is down-tuned, oversaturated distortion. We’re talking needle so deep in the red that it turned black again. The vocals are hellspawn. The rhythm is melodic and soulless—let’s call it the melody of the void. The lyrics are esoteric and thoughtful, like something from a Thomas Ligotti notebook. Altogether a heady mix of darkness and evil.

Since there are only four tracks and since they are all standouts, I’ll do a quick summary. As noted above, “Fissured Cosmos” is the outbreak track. It sets the tone and gets us started. Very Cosmic Sludge this one. “The Final Level of Consciousness” picks up where “Fissured Cosmos” left off, but here Zack Birmingham (drums) carves out a path through the Sludge—a slow ascending towpath. The first half feels very Doom and Sludge and then we go positively Black Atmospheric at about the hallway mark. Here the swamp dissipates, and we emerge onto a fog-laden cemetery footway. As you might expect, these two paths eventually converge and it’s the Blackened Death causeway until the end of the track.

“Formosus,” track three, is brutal, haunting, and insistent. Instead of deconstructing into component parts, this track fuses into a solid mass of disdain made manifest. Lyrically, “Formosus” (trans: beautiful, finely formed) is a furious denunciation of vain expectations. One of the most intriguing tracks on the album.

The final track, “Damnatio Memoriae” (trans: condemnation of memory) is standout track amongst standout tracks. Alluding to the Latin curse of historical negationism, the track is a multi-movement composition which starts off in the haze of Atmospheric and then extends full into Melodic Black. In the final throes of the track, we resolve back into the fissure from which we first emerged. Such a moving piece, this one.

From the disturbingly serene cover art to the supreme production values to the inhuman songwriting and execution, “The Final Level of Consciousness” is simply a remarkable album. Lovers of Atmospheric Black Metal will appreciate the hell out of this one.