Death is June - Formless Oedon : "Streams of Rot"

 

One thing is clear after dedicating another month to death metal, I prefer death metal that is darker and deliberate. This band from the Philippines hits most of the marks when it comes to what I look for in death metal. The album does not open with unrelenting blasting, but a morbid grind. When they attack harder on the second song it is still done very purposefully and not too fast for their own good, despite these guys all having played in thrash bands. Production wise all the sounds are impressive, I did not think the Philippines would be the place to find a studio of this quality.  They care about the songs and are not just hitting you with heavy. The vocals are very purposeful and the lyrics are articulated enough to decipher. Not that there is anything all that profound being growled, but you can tell this is a song and not sonic battery to the ears. 

When it comes to their influences, at times I hear a little Morbid Angel, but aside from that things like throwing in dissonant angular passages or clean tones, is done in a pretty original fashion. They are obviously fans of classic death metal, so many of those tropes are in play, and the genre itself pretty much gives bands a distinct framework to build within.  "Calcine Purification" is the first song where it feels like they are settling in to the confines of the genre and adapting the status quo. But four songs in is pretty good. "Consolamentum" is another return to dig up more familiar graves. It does not strike me as being as inspired as the first four songs. The melancholy wail of the guitar solo is the only thing that sets it apart. 

"Beyond Eclipse of Time' finds the vocals dropping to an even lower growl, and a more commanding chug of a riff empowering what we will call the first verse. They speed things up eventually and lose a little of  the impact. The title track does not take as many chances as some of the earlier songs do as the band is more easily pacified, with the typically death metal growl and bash. I will give this album an 8.5 , for a debut this is really great, they show a great deal of promise and crank out some death metal that is dark and song oriented enough for me which is a feat in and of it self. Momento Mori is dropping this July 24th.