Death is June- Nothingness : "Godslaughter"

These guys refer to themselves as digressive death metal, which is an overstatement. To digress would mean they are going backwards, and I do not hear that they are going back any further than any other death metal band. They keep it pretty simple and grind into their unrelenting riffs. By the third song, it almsot feels like they are just taking a step back into just being brutal and not caring about the song, but then they throw in a little bit of nuance, but the case seems to be they are just pummelling and aggressive. At times, this leads to being a little one-dimensional, but they know they need to throw in some hooky groove here and there, putting them on the level of brutality as a band like Cannibal Corpse.

"Trenchant Glucnh" finds them getting mired down in the aggression and not enough dynamics to make them more effective. There are a couple of songs that almsot sprawl out to the seven-minute mark, but things are typically fairly concise with these guys. "Vanquishing Providence" grinds along a more deliberate path than the previous song, but it does not even break new ground for what we have already heard from them on this album. It is dense and tormented-sounding so for some death metal fans, that will be enough. It is midway through this song, which is also the midway point in this album, that it begins to bore me a bit. There is a more breakdown-like riff which is more interesting, but it should have been introduced earlier. 

"Divine Irresponsibility" just kind of blasts by in the blur of growling and hammering guitars; it is heavy, but that is about it. I think part of the problem is that the most iconic death metal bands were not influenced by other death metal bands, and these guys seem like they just listen to the same kind of stuff that they play. There is some ambiance at the beginning of "Umbral Spear' before they dish out the most deliberate beating yet, which is more effective than what they have unleashed on you previously, as the song has more room to breathe. While they do find their way back to a similar shade of brutality, at least there is enough of a respite here.

The last song opens with a cleaner guitar tone and a more melodic riff, which is what this album needed six songs ago, but here we are. It feels darker due to this. The slower crunch here works better than everything else we have heard from these guys. The double bass is more effective when the riffs are paced in this fashion. Sure, they speed up into the buzzing blur of riffs that have been dominant on this album, but at least there is something to create a more dynamic juxtaposition. This might be one of the heaviest death metal albums to drop this year, but not one of the most original or dynamic, but at least they proved on the last tow songs they are capable of more, they just choose violence. I will give this one an 8. Drops in July on Everlasting Spew.

pst226