12.30.2017

DYSCARNATE



















"and so it came to pass"
Year:  2012
Country:  UK
City:  Horsham
Label:  Century Media
Format:  CD
Tracks:  10
Time:  44 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Death Metal




















Modern death metal is in an identity crisis, with bands not being able to decide whether they want to venture out into the new wave of "old school" death metal or follow the masses and be technical messes or the thousands of other genre leanings. Dyscarnate, however, are pretty fucking clear about what they want to do: play kickass riffs. Top to bottom this album is just riff after riff. Borrowing heavily from the ideas of early Obituary, Jungle Rot, and modern Behemoth Dyscarnate is perfectly content with being a band that is purely about linear death metal.

Little needs to be said about the guitar sounds from a technical perspective other than I think the distortion pedal I know guitarist/vocalist Tom Whitty throws in his loop (you can see as much in 'In the Studio' videos online) gives the guitar sound a more compressed sound, which when combined with the fuzzy bass sound allows for a sort of fizzing pop on top of the mix. It's really unfortunate because if this had a sound more like Dying Fetus's newest Reign Supreme the album as a whole would benefit. The riffs are, of course, fucking incredible. Ranging from the high octane chugging of "In the Face of Armageddon" to the pounding grooves of, well, any song on the album this record has balls. Whitty's no nonsense style definitely adds to the overall brutality, but leaves the album one dimensional for the first few tunes.

Unfortunately, this album is incredibly one dimensional. By the time "Grinding Down the Gears" is roaring through the headphones, you just want anything else. Then another hardcore breakdown fucking barges in and just tramples all over you. It becomes riff chaos after that as everything just swirls in and out of your ears, causing the rest of the album to go sort of un-listenable. Some might find this overwhelming powerhouse of riffing enjoyable, but at this point all these breakdowns and double bass patterns are becoming too similar. Not entirely devoid of being memorable, thanks to the killer fucking chorus sections like in "The Promethean", but so similar that it becomes pretty grating. This is super unfortunate because the final track, "Kingdom of the Blind", is so chock full of adrenaline and ferocious riffs that you just kind of forget about listening to it. (*Review by Aker ).
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