This is the debut album for the trio from Wisconsin. and it’s a slightly eclectic batch of songs. Guitarist/vocalist Sean Fitzpatrick, bassist Ben Stueve and drummer Shane Olivo certainly have their own style and while you can hear the thrash influences in everything, there’s also plenty of death metal thrown in the mix to make for some intense, hyper-fast songs and ultra-heavy slightly slower ones.
Blasting straight in with squealing guitars and manic drums, “Sinister” sets the mood as it drops to a steady tempo allowing for the vocals to deliver their abrasive growls without needing to be rushed.
The rolling guitar riff is accompanied by the drums and slow drawn-out doomy growls on “Rubber Pencils”, slightly reminiscent of Bolt Thrower but at the same time nothing like.
“Demoralized” has a rather uplifting attack to the drum flurries as the acerbic vocals have a raspy sore throat texture to the way they are spat out.
Picking up a pace a little is “As He Eats Your Soul”, which has a fun refrain as the tempo increases for the verses before dropping back down for the choruses.
The guitar riff for “Shadows Can’t Tell the Truth” is relatively mellow, and we also have our first lead solo of the album, and if it weren’t for the death vocals this could easily be a hard rock song.
The doomy track “Eternal Death” plods along until the kick drum steps up a bit even though the guitars aren’t bated into following suit and grind out their flowing riff for the vocals to growl over.
Picking up the pace, we have “Suicide or Die” with short blasts of up-tempo drumming before things are reined in once more for the vocals to drawl over before blasting over the chorus again.
“Contradiction” is right, as the song feels like it could be much fast and is, but the instruments appear to pick up their tempos at contrasting times, so you have blasting drums over a chugging guitar riff and then when the shredding gets fast, the drums maintain a steady beat.
While on “Fates of Death”, the drums and guitars are both manically quick at the same time and then taper off when the vocals join to make everything heavier as they groove before getting faster once more.
The album ends with the slower and heavier “For Those Who Suffer” with all its guitar squeals and drawn-out guttural roars.
The dynamic changes keep things interesting and make for an enjoyable album.
(8/10 Marco Gaminara)
Leave a Reply