If I were to pick the end all be all of progressive death metal albums, I would go with Portal of I. If I were to pick the end all be all of death metal – Or metal in general, mind you – albums, I would go with Portal of I. If I were to pic… You get the point.
I’ve been addicted to this album for so long it’s become unhealthy, the way the album is structured is perfect, the way the lyrics flow oh so amazingly with the music is perfect, the way the music is simply some of the most elegant music I’ve listened to in a while is outstanding. While there’s only one addition to the traditional metal formula -if there ever was one- the violin work by Tim Charles compliments the music, and even takes lead at most times, but it never gets in the way, when Tim Charles’ work takes lead it never overshadows anything else, every other instrument compliments the new lead, and similarly whenever bassist -Holy crap is he good- Brendan Brown or guitarist Benjamin Baret or also drummer Dan Presland take lead, every one else follow in and work together to make what I truly consider the most elegant progressive death metal album of probably, well, ever.
I have only listened to Existentium as Alhazred (their former name), and only to a song called Viral Fear which James Spaeth, their drummer, had me listen to when they first recorded, and I distinctly remember getting so hooked on this song that it eventually went into my everyday playlist. So when he told me that his band were making an album I was stoked, and rightfully so. Before I go any further, I can say up front that save for some very minor issues, this album takes the cake. The whole damned cake.
Next to a demo they released back in 2012, Decadent Desecration is Existentium’s first full length album that has just been released this month (March 2014).
Right from the get go, the album deceives you with an acoustic intro track that, at first listen, gave me the impression that this would be a progressive death metal album a la Opeth, or even a doom metal album. Make no mistake though, this album is pure, hard hitting death metal with a LOT of thrash metal influences, and I’m not sure if they intended this or not, but TONS of Hypocrisy influences, mainly in Chris’ voice, and in some of the riffs. Also Obscura influences. The best I can describe Decadent Desecration is that it is what happens when an orgy between Scale The Summit, Obscura, Hypocrisy, and Exodus happens. Lots of beards in there. Lots and lots of beards.
The album keeps up the pace throughout all the ten tracks, with one instrumental in between to keep things varied. Marrying outstanding bass work from Josh with James’ blast beats and everything complimented with Chris’ and David’s melodic work, departing the album at times from the raw brutality it is incorporating to a more melodic death tone, and at times more melodic than death, which manages to keep things interesting.
The mastering and all the audio work really is superb here, save for a few seconds in one of the tracks where the drums could’ve used a little more reverb instead of sounding flat, but again, that was for exactly three seconds in one of the songs that if you are not an audiophile, won’t even notice.
I can’t think of anything wrong with the album, it is a perfect example of how good experimentation can go. In this case I ended up feeding my ears melodies akin to Scale the Summit’s with growls like Hypocrisy’s and riffing between Exodus’ and Obscura’s. It’s the beautiful love child of all these bands with enough substance to stand out on its own.
While Existentium may be new, they definitely have the technicality and sound to make an impact in the death metal scene.
Decadent Desecration is available for digital download here and for physical discs and merch here.
Okay, so the whole “Spam Tuesday” was a bust (Maybe spam Saturdays would work better?) I don’t discover that much underground bands on a weekly or even bi-weekly basis, and sometimes I just get downright lazy (sue me).
What I’ll be doing here is, I’ll be posting some music that I personally find enjoyable, be it from underground bands or not, but priority will be for underground metal bands, even more priority will be for local underground metal bands, EVEN MOAR priority will go to my band, because we’re underground, local, and we only have one song out. (Love us? Please?)
First up, I’d like to tell you all that Devin Townsend has recorded and (almost) released a new album for The Devin Townsend Project called Epicloud! I’m personally not sure if it’s Epicloud for Epic cloud or Epic Loud, but it’s not that loud, so it must be the first choice (Fluffy cloud would have been a better name, but, whatever). He also is awesome enough to have it entirely stream-able for freaking free! So, yeah, Listen to it there.
More epic news, Dethklok have a new video out! A very VERY weird video, of the NSFW variations. I’m not going to spoil it, but you’ll get to see a Pharaoh getting a blowjob from Mortal Kombat’s Mileena.
He also says testicular propane, which is, hands down, the awesomest most coolest phrase I have heard in my entire 22 years of earthly existence.
Also, if you have never heard of them, and chances are, you haven’t, Armenian Space Station! These people define the word “Underground”, I knew of them through a friend (An Armenian friend), and no one else I know knew about them before him, which seems a bit eerie to me.
ARMENIAN SPACE STATION, FOLKS!
As per usual, support my band, because we’re good, and support our producer (He has some good shit in the works!).
I’m going to start something new here and call it “Spam Tuesday” where I drop some pristine “A” grade crap your way! Sounds awesome, I know.
This Spam Tuesday, I’ll be bombarding your earholes with some epic underground musicians that totally deserve the recognition, starting with *Drum roll*:
FanatiK! (because self promotion is the shit!) This band consists of two dudes, my self, and some other dude on production duties, we just released our first track, listen to it or get assassinated.
Next on Spam Tuesday, we have the guy who produced FanatiK’s first track (oh look, a flying bra!) Michael Maurice! This dude makes some really gnarly EDM shit that is absolutely worth your time.
Next up, we have a great death metal band from Baltimore, MD, named “Alhazred“, with this guy as their drummer, and in my experience with music, whenever a band has a drummer that looks suspiciously a lot like a viking, they’re bound to be awesome.
So now that we’ve covere the west, and the mid east, we shall venture to India, the land of the epic Vishal J. Singh and his band, Amogh Symphony (seriously, if you haven’t given this guy a listen, you’re missing out… A LOT).
Last, but definitely not least, we have the guy that makes almost all bassists feel like they should just stop playing because of how good he is, Colin Waldo!
Are you a bassist? Do you enjoy an instrument’s weird/demonic look? Do you like weird colors that you don’t see on an instrument every day? If you answered yes to any of these three questions, then this article is for you! Look no further sir/ma’am, your search ends at this:
Sexy, isn't she?
The ESP LTD F-155DX is a beast of a Bass Guitar, played by Taiwan’s very own Chthonic’s Doris Yeh (for those who don’t know, Chthonic are a taiwanese extreme black metal band, think Cradle Of Filth, only 10 times better), the bass sports a couple of them ESP active pickups that deliver a nice punch through your amplifier, while some may tell you that EMGs will sound nicer, a bit of a research will indicate how these pickups are pretty competent, and can hold their own against the aforementioned EMGs with pretty similar tone. The shape of the bass allows for comfortable playing when you’re either sitting or standing, and take it from a big guy, you need a bass that is big to not seem like you’re holding a violin, but that’s not the point of this review anyway, the bass features 3 equalizer knobs, a tone knob, and a master volume knob for maximum variations in tone, the frets are big and comfortable, and the tuners don’t get loose easily, but I wouldn’t mind upgrading to some locking tuners instead, also, the strings that come with the bass aren’t the best, so I do suggest you get another set of your favorite strings and slap’em on that bad boy! Action wise, it could get lower, though it is not terrible, but after a while, it does get a bit hectic.
Onto the woods within this baby, it has a Basswood body which allows for a clear metal-like tone, unlike Mahogany which offers a darker, richer sound that could work really well for either Jazz or Blues, but I don’t think you’ll be playing any Jazz when this infernal Bass is begging to spill some blood! It has a maple neck, with a Rosewood fingerboard, 24 XJ frets and as you can all see from the picture, 5 strings to slap like there’s no tomorrow!
From personal experience, this bass owns! It delivers wonderfully within my band, we play a mixture of Thrash/Death/Metalcore, and record in a home-studio-esque manner, though the Bass plugged through the sound interface sounds amazing.
This baby runs for $379 on Musician’s Friend, though for the money, you’re getting a $500~$600 quality Bass! So it is a pretty nice bargain!
I’m going to leave you all with a demo of the bass that I made:
Metal Geek 