DerogAnother band new to these ears –  Derogatory  have released their nine track debut album on the ever reliable FDA Rekotz.

Hailing from Los Angeles the band play traditional USDM and play it well!

After a cheeky little acoustic intro we’re off into track 1,   “Into  The  Depth  Of Time” which kicks things off nicely  riff – wise  before  getting  fast  and  sliding  in  blast  beats  aplenty . I really liked this track, it has a  mixture  of  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  some  melodic  riffing.

When track 2 –  “Cryopreservation”  started the riff brought to mind early Dark Angel, so much so that I had to check my iPod wasn’t playing up and ‘Darkness Descends’ hadn’t somehow slipped on. And that has to be a huge compliment as they’re one of my favourite thrash bands.  The song is a touch slower than the rest and definitely my stand out track on this cd.  “Above  All  Else” has an old school  Florida death  metal flavour and has a couple of outstanding solos from guitarists Joe Viwatkurkul and Christian Ordonez.

Overall there’s plenty of nods to early Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation and Deicide and now and then a sprinkle of Gorguts style technicality. The band appear supremely confident and certainly know their instruments which is nice to see these days where anyone can make a half arsed effort of a record in their bedrooms providing they have the right software – talent appears an optional extra sometimes.

Lyrically we’re talking dreaming, space, the occult – all good wholesome stuff. lucid  dreaming  and  moving  forward,  while  the  production (by the two aforementioned guitarists)  has  a surprisingly strong, in your face  and  professional  sound  to  it.

There’s no wheel re-invention but this is a good, solid debut album that shows a lot of promise for this young band.

(8/10 Mark Eve)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Derogatory-DeathMetal