A blast of feedback, squealing from overdriven tube amps the moment the guitarist unmutes their signal chain, is the simplest way to capture the raw live feel of an extreme metal show on record. While this motif opens tracks across Primitive Man’s discography, it’s less of a genre-nod and more of a warning: turn away now – or brace yourself if you dare enter.
Since 2012, Primitive Man has been churning elements of funeral doom, sludge, black metal, drone and harsh noise into something so abrasive, heavy and oppressive that it’s easy to miss the thoughtful forward-looking approach of their art. Their music distills the suffocating and lightless experience of hopeless depression like few other bands.
‘Social Contract’, the lead single off this fourth album, sets out their new sound, featuring a nerve-wrecking buildup of clacking snare rim-shots, sparse grinding bass and distorted yells from an angry crowd. When frontman Ethan McCarthy’s familiar crushing guitar tone and inhuman growl finally arrive, it’s almost a relief.
In the five years since their short and punchy LP Immersion (2020), the world has given the band plenty to be horrified about. It’s little surprise that Observance, haunted by personal suffering, techno feudalism and fears of a collapsing American society, easily breaks the one-hour barrier. The rage-filled nihilistic tone is best captured in ‘Social Contract’: “Living the blues inside the body of a dead god fucking the void / With 450 million motherfucking guns, things do not have to be this way.”
The time between albums has clearly enabled the band to refine every section, song and transition. The seven tracks are structured like a towering pyramid: a central harsh noise interlude buttressed by two fourteen-minute slabs of doom metal, and bookended by the ‘shorter’ tracks. The effect is that once you begin the journey through the album, there is no quick escape to shorter tracks. You are lashed to the bow for the duration.
Observance’s production is meticulous. The album is rich in tactile details – the creak of pick-scraped guitar, the rattle of drop-tuned bass strings – so it never loses the rawness and claustrophobia of a live show. But there is also a new vulnerability and use of space, seen in the finale of ‘Natural Law’, where a searing and mournful guitar solo fades out to echo as a delicately played acoustic guitar concludes the track. Elsewhere, there are psychedelic touches, like the synthy drones and textures in ‘Transactional’, sounds usually explored in McCarthy’s various dark ambient solo projects rather than Primitive Man.
Observance achieves the fine balance of grindingly bleak and oppressive music that never falls into the trap of being repetitive or boring. It manages to break new ground for the band’s sound. Primitive Man has never lacked ideas or ambition, but taking the time to construct and refine this album has produced their finest work – and they know it. Responding in a recent interview to online skepticism about their new direction, McCarthy was unfazed: “You need to fix your baby ears.”
