This Jacksonville band is trying to prove there is more to Florida death metal than Tampa. They, however, lean pretty heavily into the influence of Tampa Death Metal, making this a moot point. The riffs wind around and tighten into well-coiled grooves. Where they seem to differ from the Tampa bands lies in their tendency to jam the songs out. The first track is eleven minutes long. They hit you with a more aggressive blast going into "The Confines of Flesh". They do find their groove on this one though it is not as catchy as the first song. Still, they manage to jam less when angry, and this one is only nine and a half minutes.
The vocals are the obligatory low growl. It is puncy in delivery, so it works well enough. They throw in a ton of guitar solos, so if that is your thing, this will be up your alley as at times it becomes a shred-o-thon. While there is some finesse to what they do, there is not a great deal of dynamics or variance, until it is time for a guitar solo, then they sometimes change up some of the sounds to set the stage for it. Thus, by the time we get to "Thy Inner Demon Seed " the moments they do switch, it is just enough to keep it from being too one-dimensional. If you are into guitar histronics, then it might be even more impressive as they are skilled at their instruments. A higher, more black metal vocal does chime in on this song to break things up a little before the band pays the most tribute to Morbid Angel yet at the song's close.
They close the album with a 13-minute epic. The vocals switch into a higher sneer. They did need to switch things up vocally, so this plays to their favor. When they pour on the speed, things do not go better for them. The darker, more melodic section in the middle of the song is the most interesting, though even this deviation follows a bit of a formula. This album is full of great guitar playing, and the drummer gets the job done but sticks to the guidelines for the genre. As songwriters, things wander a bit, and their influences are generally worn on their sleeves at all times, so I will give this album an 8. It was really well done and masterfully presented from a performance and production standpoint. This drops July 25th on Transcending Obscurity Records.
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