The mighty INGESTED is back in 2022 with their new album Ashes Lie Still. The band was formed in Manchester in 2006 and released their first full length album in 2009 titled The Boundaries of Human Suffering, and in 2010 toured Europe in support of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER. After getting their feet wet with that European tour, they returned to record the second album The Surreption. With their first of EP's coming in 2013, they went back into the studio for the band's third and forth albums with The Architect of Extinction in 2015 and The Level Above Human in 2018. The pandemic fails to slow these guys down and in 2020 the world is given the album Where Only Gods May Tread. Shortly after they strike again with the band's third EP and another full length album in 2021 titled The Surreption ǀǀ. Now nearing the end of 2022, the band is back with their fourth album release in four years and the seventh of the group's career.

The album starts off with the titled track "Ashes Lie Still" and in case you had any worries, don't, the band still manages to pull off a colossal sound for a trio. The song has a ominous opening guitar and manages to keep that close throughout the track. The guest vocals by JULIA FRAU gives a serenity to the track and nestles in the background well. If the depths of hell were to open up, I demand they be presented by Jay. Seems effortless and yet it somehow manages to come across clearly. The guy deserves respect by his peers in the genre. The track "Shadows in Time" is a devastating assault orchestrated by the drums which sound like they are played with hammers instead of sticks. The double kick is relentless when unleashed and also really sounds top notch on the production side of things also.

Questions have come up with the fact the band has recently continued as a trio since their last album in 2021. Can they still slam and create the chaos they were once able to do with this in mind? Tracks like "Tides of Glass" and "With Broken Wings" can put to rest these questions. You get a sense that the boys knew these questions would be coming their way and they step up with one of their more dominant albums to date. More spine tingling atmospheric presence with the guitars than on previous albums but it compliments the bands overall sound without any brutality being diminished. "Echoes of Hate" and "Scratch the Vein"  will be examples of this. Yet when the song "Echoes of Hate" is crippling foundations with the double bass, the hairs on the back of your neck rise up.

INGESTED are really racking up quality albums year after year. Come to think of it, they always seem to deliver on the material they have released throughout their career. The brutal slam metal you come to expect is all over the album so there's no need to think that minus a member would affect that aspect of their music. The album also features other guests including Sven de Caluwé of THE ABORTED and Matthew Heafy of TRIVIUM. Anyone who are fans of the band should be gearing up for the riots in the pit when they come back to town to promote this release.