Album Review: Sectioned – Annihilated

Sectioned are back and ho-lee-shit do they mean business. For those unfamiliar, Sectioned are Pedram Valiani’s recently resurrected pre-Frontierer noisy mathcore band, that now features a mostly new lineup (mainly the Scottish contingent of Frontierer) and an overabundance of pissed off energy.

After releasing a couple of EPs, Monotone and Outlier, in 2012 and 2013, and a split with Shudder in 2014, not much was heard from Sectioned for a few years. Frontierer took precedence and unleashed two stunning recordings, then a couple of new Sectioned tracks were teased online, a full debut was announced and now here we are, being Annihilated.

A suitably titled album, Annihilated, is an unrelenting 43-minute aural assault that fuses technical mathcore, grind and thrashy hardcore, and barely offers a single chance for you to catch your breath. From the title track’s opening screech of feedback through “Betrayer”’s whirlwind fretwork and “Victorious Neverending”’s explosive drumming to the final pained scream on “Through The Trees”. (Although saying that the album does actually close with the bleak and sombre piano-led outro to “Through The Trees” showing hints of NIN’s more melodic output.)

The pacing and structure of Annihilated is spot on, the thirteen tracks fly by in quick succession, but there are slower and no less intense moments to be had with glitchy electronic noise segues and huge sounding breakdowns. These breakdowns feel earned, rather than an obligatory, tick-box segment, which can sometimes be the case with math/hardcore. Take, for example, the deadly double threat of “Toothgrinder” and “Eigengrau” providing chugging, djenty low-end riffs and thudding drums, and the final third of “Release”, which will no doubt be a lethal pit highlight.

Recorded and mixed by Pedram at his own Outlier Studio in Edinburgh and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, Annihilated is so densely packed that after a couple of weeks of intense listening I’m still picking at the meat of their scarily technical sound. A staggering display of musicianship highlighted by the spot-on production, there are crazy guitar effects and intricate solos throughout, the drums are all complex rhythms and fills, and the bass provides a substantial, weighty impetus that underpins the guitar madness. Vocalist Jamie Christ’s performance is abrasive, angry and always in your face. He spits out wild shouts and screams – like the majority of the music, there’s no holding back here and no place for melodic clean vocals, they just wouldn’t fit.

This is extreme music at its noisiest and most intense – everything is turned up all of the way all of the time and there are many distorted, intricate layers contributing to the carnage. A breakneck experience, Annihilated is unyielding in its delivery and is a near faultless debut album from Sectioned, the question is: are you, your eardrums and your neck ready for it?

Annihilated is out now and can be picked up for “Name Your Price” on bandcamp

Sectioned: facebook | bandcamp

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