Withered works furiously to erase any perceived lines between black and death metal. Grief Relic, the Atlanta quartet’s fourth album and first in six years, boasts high-powered lineup changes, with virtuoso bassist Colin Marston and Primitive Man guitarist Ethan McCarthy joining leader Mike Thompson and drummer Beau Brandon. Experienced blood gives brutal powerhouses “Withdraw” and “Distort, Engulf” high craft underneath the lung-crushing weight. It’s even more obvious on longer pieces “To Glimpse Godliness” and “A Realm of Suffering,” ugly nuggets edging Withered from reserves to the front line.

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This article appears in August 19 • 2016.

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Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.