Warside – Cognitive Extinction
Warside – Cognitive Extinction
Gruesome Records
Release Date: 17/04/2026
Review by Oli Gonzalez
7/10
Having formed in 2018, Warside seem like newcomers to the extreme metal genre in the grand scheme of things. In that time, their name has appeared on numerus festival lineups including Dortmund Deathfest and Obscene Extreme. Now 8 years into their career, they aim to demonstrate what they’ve been up to in the studio in “Cognitive Extinction”.
The album explodes into life with ‘Mind Fracture’. With a huge sound and epic cinematic feel, this one packs a punch indeed. There’s a sense of chaos and constant dissonance provided by the guitar passages that seemingly have a mind of their own! Much in the style of Cattle Decapitation, with the fierce yet clear growled vocals. As the album progresses, you start to notice a subtle technical death metal spine and a complexity to the song writing. Much like Necrophagist, where there’s seemingly multiple movements within each composition and no canonical nor cliched song structure.
This technical approach becomes more apparent during ‘Invasive Thoughts’, where the individual skill of each musician is on display in a coherent yet chaotic blend. You feel like there needs to be something slower to provide a bit of temporary respite and allow the album to breathe. You think that comes during ‘Synthetic Abyss’, especially with the more stripped back and ambient opening.
But then you’re thrown right into the pressure cooker again and churned up in another frantically aggressive number. Whilst in isolation, ‘Visceral’ is an impressive number characterised by some impressive guitar work, in the context of the entire album it feels as though ideas are getting recycled, the dynamics, speed, and overall feel of each song is becoming too similar to the rest, and the pacing of the album is starting to suffer.
That’s probably the best way to sum up Warside and “Cognitive Extinction”. No doubt they’re solid song writers, and in isolation their songs pack a punch. But as a whole, it just feels like there’s a lack of variety and measures to guard against staleness. If you’ve listened to one song, you’ve listened to them all. Though there are occasional moments of brilliance, like the solo to end ‘Thirst For Rot’. “Cognitive Extinction” is a solid effort but is unlikely to disrupt the established order of extreme metal bands.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Mind Fracture
02. Synaptic Decay
03. Neurocide
04. Invasive Thoughts
05. Synthetic Abyss
06. Visceral
07. Thirst for Rot
08. Cognitive Extinction
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