Alluvial

A progressive instrumental death metal unit, Alluvial employ a heavy and heady blend of technical and textural doom and gloom. The band's 2017 debut, Deep Longing for Annihilation was an instrumental affair, but they expanded their sonic footprint on 2021's Sarcoma, which added vocals to their unrelenting sound, a trend that continued on the 2024 Death Is But a Door EP. Built around the talents of innovative guitarists Keith Merrow and Wes Hauch, Alluvial draws on some of the darker sonic proclivities of the duo's other projects -- Merrow is a member of Conquering Dystopia and an accomplished solo artist and producer, while Hauch has ties to the Faceless and Black Crown Initiate. The band originally toyed with the idea of bringing in a vocalist, but ultimately decided that the themes of depression, anxiety, self-doubt, anger, and introversion that they were looking to explore would be best-served sans lyrics. The group's punishing debut album, Deep Longing for Annihilation, was released independently in 2017. They continued to hone their uncompromising technical death metal attack on their 2021 sophomore effort, Sarcoma, which added vocalist Kevin Muller (the Merciless Concept) to their arsenal. Following national and international tours in 2022, Alluvial entered the studio to write. After composing and demo'ing 14 songs, they released the video and streaming single "Bog Dweller" in November 2023. They packaged it with the tracks "Fogbelt," "Area Code," and "Death Is But a Door," and titled it for the latter. The EP appeared in January 2024 as a stopgap.
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