Remnants of Existence

The latest album from Greece’s Blessed by Perversion is an interesting cocktail of fairly standard death metal riffage that has been given a new lease life thanks to the commentary of melodic riffs borrowed from their black metal countrymen. In fact, the riffs with a more overt death metal flavour are kept deliberately primitive, to the point where they act as little more than percussive interludes set in contrast to the complex tremolo picked meanderings that makes up the real bulk of these tracks. The result is an interesting hybrid that looks like a death metal album cut from the usual template of the modern style, but manages to smuggle in degrees of subtlety beneath this deceptive veneer.

The production in part explains this. All is clear, crisp, digitally precise, with clicky double-bass drums and the same guitar tone we’ve heard a hundred times before on modern death metal albums. But credit where it’s due, the bass can be clearly heard thundering away beneath the meaty mix, and this instrument is given frequent moments to shine as it announces the next passage whilst the other instruments pause for breath. Vocals are low but not quite guttural by death metal standards, with clarity retained to discern some of the lyrics within the fray. Understated keyboards make regular appearances, following the chord sequences of the guitars. Again, although the literal application of subtle synth tones is nothing noteworthy, it adds an interesting layer of ethereal mysticism to this otherwise mechanical operation, elevating the music above simple metrics of brutality and rhythm into something with a distinctive character.

Generic production values aside, the playing and arrangements are executed flawlessly. The drums consistently refresh the guitars, framing or interrupting the flow of each track as required. They are able to jump from fluid blast-beats to accenting the percussive punch of the basic death metal passages, further accenting the contrast between the two. The guitars themselves exhibit a similar compulsion to throw out moments of soaring melody at unexpected junctures, forever linking this back to the dirty death metal soil from whence it came. It’s an interesting push and pull of primitivism contrasted with regal harmonic tendencies that elevates this album above the polished, mass-production qualities of the general presentation.

One other thing to note is the scarcity and briefness of the solos (with the exception of the epic closing number ‘Within Monumental Chaos’). Whilst solos in themselves are only as good as the execution and placement within a piece, it is noteworthy that Blessed by Perversion largely shun them as a creative tool. Deciding instead to spend their creative energies in carefully crafting these riffs toward a culmination in their own right. Any heightened drama and chaos that solos can add is almost an afterthought for this band; a ‘nice to have’ but not by any measure necessary.

But taken as a whole ‘Remnants of Existence’ is a work that takes the rudiments of modern death metal at its most generic and moulds them into a sophisticated compass of melodic and rhythmic interplay. By borrowing the bracing theatrics of Greek black metal, chunks of Finnish death metal, and a tight imaginative rhythm section ultimately elevates this release into something more enduring than at first appears.

Originally published at Hate Meditations