WHAFLURCH deliver their new full-length album, a swampy Death Doom Metal delight. With is album art straight from a B-movie Body Horror, and a delectable concept throughout the lyrics that follows a psychic spore, hell-bent on world domination, taking place over centuries. Cavernous tones and cosmic synth movements conspire to create a deeply esoteric feeling. 6 songs feel like 12 in this self-proclaimed "Metal odyssey" as it is very easy to sink into a deep immersion, waves of dark sounds and marijuana smoke washing over you.

Track One starts with a dreamy cosmic synth passage as we are introduced to the main character of the album, the Mycelium - a bacterial colony, a branching network of fungal threads. There is a strong Sci-Fi element to the opening, making it easy to conjure images of a whirling Lovecraftian creature dancing through the cosmos. The first drum fill comes in hard, the screaming synth and heavy guitar tones shatter through the spacey intro like a supernova. The quality of the mix is apparent immediately, all the instrumentation weaving together nicely to create a blanket of dark tones and unabated heaviness. The track ends with an elevating guitar solo, the waling tones offset by the deep bass to create a two-pronged instrumental attack.

"Stoned Ape Apocalypse" follows the rise and evolution of man "Curious by nature / Often to its own peril" before the Mycelium pushes man's mind to evolve. The song has some amazing double bass passages, the natural drum sound punching through the condensed guitar. This track leans more into the Death elements than the previous, with some high paced sections and elements of Groove Metal in the instrumentation, the vocals are diabolical and perfectly compliment the heavy tones.

Track Four, "Phantasmagorical Fumes" ups the heaviness even further, bordering on a Grindcore song with the blasting drums and ferocious vocals. Some of the best fills and riffs pepper themselves in through the chaotic explosion of music. The song ends on a very Doomy note, which feels like finally inhaling after holding your breath for the first five minutes of the track.

The final titular track marks the end of the spore's worldly journey, as it casts off into space having completed its task of world domination. The song certainly feels like the end of a journey, culminating elements of all of the previous tracks, there's blistering blast beats, sweeping guitar riffs, tempo changes and a growling, unwavering vocal performance. Following a crushingly heavy, Doom-laced final section, the music fades out into a cosmic atmosphere of deafening silence, as the echoes of the synthesiser drift away the journey you have been brought along comes to an epic and satisfying close.

A metal odyssey is the perfect way to describe this album, each song its own chapter in the journey of a cosmic fungi. A fantastic sound, the production is very well done and the deep guitar tones, the raw natural drums and growling vocals that never let up all complement each other to create an epic, engrossing album that grips you by the ears and pulls you into it like a game of Jumanji.