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| #FOR FANS OF: Technical Death Metal, Gorguts, Immolation |
Making it to their second EP, this release from the German act bearing the name Inexorable is quite a blend of Technical and traditional Death Metal. The technical side of the band is a bit more avant-garde than the usual assortment of bands in the genre as there’s a heavy swarm of Gorguts-styled sweeping riff-patterns that contain all manners of off-beat, discordant patterns. These creates a discomforting feeling throughout the album by still featuring the more nominal style of riff-work found in Technical Death Metal of wanking lead rhythms and swirling, dazzling riff-work fueled by complex, dynamic arrangements dive-bombing throughout the music, yet when all of this is put alongside the darkened atmosphere it leaves a rather disorienting experience. By featuring these rather unfamiliar elements together in terms of mixing highly-complex and technical work alongside simplistic arrangements that evokes a darker, rawer tone with the kind of atmosphere that’s hardly been used by the genre as this type of atmosphere is more in-line with traditional Death Metal acts. As the clanking, raw drum-tone accompanying this also generates, there’s an even more pronounced feeling of the dirty, guttural qualities that make for an overall impressive-seeming mixture. While this makes for an intriguing listen, it also leaves an incredibly disjointed feeling overall as there’s never really any focal point in the music. Whether it’s the rather impressive technical chops on display or the primordial atmosphere present, one of these matters should be the main mark of the band yet each one manages to undercut the other. By having this drip with a dark evil atmosphere, it really drowns out the technicality by turning it into a thick, muddy mess which lets the technicality get overshadowed into these darker sections, and likewise the technicality manages to distract from the atmosphere with all sorts of wanking and dive-bombing throughout in incredibly discordant patterns so it inevitably loses the attempts at creating those harsher rhythms. If these issues can be solved, the band could be onto something here as the music itself isn’t band. Intro ‘Praeludium Mortis’ is all eerie and discordant riffs that charge along with build-up drumming and dark vocals into an ominous start. Proper first song ‘Pantheon's Demise’ has a fine technical display dive-bombing through the varying tempo changes fueled by those discordant riffs, raging patterns and dexterous drumming which makes for a rather impressive showing here. Likewise, ‘Disenthrallment’ is all charging patterns, swirling leads and discordant riffs before blasting through the finale for an even more impressive effort. ‘Media Vita’ is all complex blasting through a more mid-tempo offering that offers deep chugging along the discordant riff-work drops off for a pounding finale that is a bit blander than the rest of the songs as that mid-section isn’t all that interesting. Easing off the speed, ‘In Morte Sumus’ utilizes the angular, discordant riff-patterns and rather laid-back atmospheres with the occasional complex patterns bursting through the sprawling paces which makes for an overall decent offering. Finally, ‘Futility’ sweeps all notions of technicality for utterly frantic patterns, battering drumming and tight chugging before being swept aside further for meandering, pointless minutes of discordant fade-out noise which leaves this quite frustrating and puzzling. Otherwise, this one does have some room to work with but does have some flaws within. (Don Anelli)
(Self - 2013)
Score: 70