Another 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
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