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There was a time when ‘progressive death metal’ was shorthand for ‘sounds quite a lot like opeth circa Blackwater Park’. These days, the tag could mean one of countless different things and while Dark Waters End clearly draw inspiration from some familiar sources, the imperious Swedes among them, the material on their debut amounts to a commendably abstruse sonic square peg. Clearly deeply immersed in death metal’s past and present but in no way restricted by it, the likes of Congenital Vice and Rat King deftly blend pinpoint brutality with perverse arrangements and a near-relentless slew of elegant embellishments. Gracefully veering from unapologetic bonehead deathcore to dizzyingly cerebral art rock reverie, often within the same song, Dark Waters End are arguably what happens when a generation raised on Candiria and Cannibal Corpse gets their radical shit together.

Dom Lawson has been writing for Metal Hammer and Prog for over 14 years and is extremely fond of heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee and snooker. He also contributes to The Guardian, Classic Rock, Bravewords and Blabbermouth and has previously written for Kerrang! magazine in the mid-2000s.