Decimation: Between Two Worlds
Out 27th November on La Caverna Records (originally released in 1992)
Given the timing of this now forgotten demo – after death metal had “broken out” so to speak – it makes for an interesting study in how the underground scene was metabolising the works of the genre’s silverbacks at ground level. ‘Between Two Worlds’ is overexcited and unfocused, everything we would expect from a band’s early demo. But unlike the latent thrash influence littering the demos of the late 80s, Decimation combine a spikier, more self-consciously death metal poise with what, one can only assume, were their earlier influence in galloping heavy metal runs and a more eccentric melodic flair offsetting the death metal aggression. Playful bounce, strikingly bright passages, teasing in their pomposity, are collided against a more rhythmically disruptive element lifted from Tampa death metal, namely early Atheist and Obituary. As with so many demos and lost EPs from artists that never quite came together, there is character here, and one wonders where they would have taken it had this outfit continued. Here we find only hints from a frantic, young act attempting to coalesce their divergent interests into a coherent entity. Instead, main man Steve Crane would go on to form respectable death/doom outfit Dusk.
Grunleggender: The Essence of Expedience
Out 30th November, self-released
Attempts to combine a form of purposeful dissonant black metal with the bright hopefulness of post metal, and in this is not entirely unsuccessful, the shortcomings of both styles being somewhat offset by their sole virtues, namely the anarchic potential of the former and the contemplative stance of the latter. But in attempting to integrate these elements into a form of atmospheric black metal, the totality of this form dissolves away into a series of parts, each of which has something to recommend it in its own right, but at the cost of any context, which slips quietly away into the night. As the album progresses (all eighty eight minutes of it), Grunleggender throw everything from post/technical hardcore, mathrock, noise rock, doom metal, dark ambient, and avant-garde black metal at the listener as if to justify a scope based more on greed than necessity. But flow, momentum, gestalt remains frustratingly absent for the sake of a hubristic display of diverse, segmented components.
Invictus: Nocturnal Visions
Out 26th January on Memento Mori/Me Saco Un Ojo
Assertive death metal that sometimes forgets to play death metal, with the occasional lapse into slower metalcore or borderline nu metal riffs. Although this album punches above its weight as a standard OSDM offcut – there is at least some attempt to bring the tracks to life with unexpected transitions and undulatingly jagged riffing – it still feels like an album written in response to something as opposed to demanding a response. To put it a different way, everything seems to be placed where it is for a reason, because that is what usually happens at this point in a death metal track, or album, and so on. Nothing is entirely untoward – aside from the Hatebreed-esque lapse on the slower number ‘Lucid Dream Trauma’, which is again very deliberately placed at the midpoint of the album – but that’s kind of the problem. Returning characters from the classic Tampa era emerge, alongside after echoes of Suffocation and a latent thrash element. But everything looks positioned where it is not because Invictus have something to say, but because this is what is supposed to happen on a death metal album.
Malignant Aura: Where all of Worth Comes to Wither
Out 26th January on Memento Mori/Grindhead/Primitive Moth
Showcasing a wealth of squandered potential, this “death/doom” outfit furnishes us with an array of robust metallic activism both at the rhythmic and harmonic level. But repeatedly self-sabotages for the sake of meeting a set of arbitrary aesthetic criteria which are entirely self-imposed. Namely droning, tiresome gestures toward some need to be more cerebral, epic, or ambitious than the artistic abilities of these musicians will allow. The result is filler that I suppose this artist thought would build tension. When they lean into pure death metal there is something to these tracks. A punchy, tight if generic mechanistic iteration of angular riffing, with drums locked neatly into the three dimensional flow of the guitars. But sadly this element of the album is frequently suppressed by a flattened off, semi-dissonant and always contrived laboured melodrama, something this artist is incapable of pulling off with the required vigour.
Jzovce: Lesy
Out 28th January on Distant Voices
Although at times a little too simple for its own good, Jzovce shape each riff with a forward momentum, thus ducking the all too common shortcoming in modern black metal for filler riffs that are placed with the sole purpose of fulfilling an aesthetic requirement as opposed to actually taking the listener somewhere. Through simple shifts in tone, pitch, and even frequency of chord changes Jzovce are able to furnish us with a series of complimentary moods that slot together neatly in their totality. Burzum via someone like Forgotten Woods naturally sits as the most obvious influence. The plodding and at times audacious simplicity, what at first comes across as an affront quickly emerges as a meditative flow of minimalist, frigid energy. The slower numbers come off worst in this setting, as the atmosphere tends to leak out through the gaps between each beat, with Jzovce offering little in the way of compensation to salvage the music from lapsing into tedious depressive fair. But for the most part the solidity of the presentation is maintained throughout.
Citrinitas: Unending Descent
Out 30th January on Caligari Records
Demo quality showcase of blackened doom that qualifies its repetition with clear thematic development. Although the production diminishes the impact of the central compositional thread, namely effective harmonic development, one can fill in the blanks to garner a pleasing display of crushing bleakness alongside a more physical, substantive grounding. Each track is underpinned by a clear central refrain, that in turn is disrupted by basic yet assertive drum patterns, with simple yet effective melodic accents working to develop the piece to a place of activism in defiance of the statis that greets the listener in the first few measures. The contrast between the almost pathetically fragile clean tone and the rawness of the chaotically distorted rhythm guitar works to lengthen the dynamic range of this music despite the limitations of the mix. Although at times a little too pleased with the extent of its gloom – a-la Bethlehem – Citrinitas are effective in their use of the uncanny to emphasise the depressive in spirit without being overly literal.
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