Dethrone the Earth

Carlisle's Blind Spite are a band which seem to have spent quite a long time in their formative years. Having never heard of the band upon picking up the Dethrone the Earth EP, I was impressed by the technical competency of the band to the point that I doubted this was their debut release. However, upon consulting the archives, what I did not expect to find was that the group has a trail of demos going all the way back to 1997.

The experience and credentials of the band are instantly obvious from the opening furor of Oblivion Embraced, which rips open the EP with dour and dissonant black metal musings, accompanied by hyperspeed blastbeats. The astounding bass work dances feverishly above and around these obtuse chord progressions, bearing close parallels to work of Canadian prog-deathsters Augury, but with more than a nod to old Atheist.

The band are at their strongest during these moments, when obtuse and discordant black riffery takes centre stage. However, I am disappointed to say that these sequences often are consigned to the segues between other riff passages, which I speculatively fear bend their knee too easily to the demands of a live setting. A case in point is the middle portion of the track Deus, which all too readily abandons the atmospheria built by its Schuldiner worship intro to jump into a fairly bland chuggy 'headbangable' section. Further on in the same track, an unbearably bouncy melodic death style riff recurs at the expense of a far more interesting mournful major key chord sequence.

Elsewhere in the tracks, there is also a great deal of bloated filler material. The track Epoch of Despondency opens with very nice sombre clean guitar work, accompanied by chilling cymbal swells, but then abandons the atmosphere altogether when the rest of the band jumps into the fray, bursting into a completely unrelated riff idea instead. The track generally follows this theme for several minutes, with guitar riffs that are not quite brutal, nor particularly melodic, but instead some happy medium that pleases nobody entirely. The track redeems itself somewhat near the end, with a crushing doom riff embellished by some tasteful little passages twisting in and out, but ultimately the more adventurous songwriting approaches are outweighed by the more conventional tomfoolery, and indifferently tossed the second fiddle.

This is Our Abomination opens with another annoyingly bouncy melodeath riff, but progresses and matures nicely into a big fat mid paced colossus. The track covers a lot of ideas during its length, but still manages to stay quite focused.

The title track is perhaps the most bipolar of the EP, as it opens with a dull intro riff which outstays its welcome on the first repetition, but is looped for what seems like eons with almost no elaboration or alteration. The track stumbles on through numerous clumsy transitions and uneventful riffs before arriving at the half way point, and breaking into an ethereal arpeggio. The song grows and gathers steam, incorporating classy lead work into the build, before fading the EP out across a punishing doom segment in what is probably the most consistently engaging continuum of the disc.

From a technical standpoint, the production of the EP is fantastic. There are some niggles on the last track which sound like riff sections have been copy/pasted and spliced together, but the mix across the board is great. The drums sound rich and powerful, the bass is twangy and punchy, and the guitars are suitably dirty but not to the extent of muddiness. During the slower sections, the bass heavy production makes those slams hit like a tonne of filthy, black earth, while the faster sections zip along smoothly. The dual vocal styles are impressive, with the guttural style perhaps taking a bit too much of the play time over the black metal yelps, but both are well performed and exceptionally produced.

Overall, potential listeners be warned that there is a hell of a lot going on in these songs, and it took me quite some time to even fathom the differences between the tracks. The EP is somewhat disorienting in this regard. However, within the chaos, it is abundantly clear that there is a tremendous amount of potential here, as when the band hit their stride, there is very little that I can say that is negative. It is simply unfortunate that the wonderful moments on this EP are strung together with bland and diffident passages that seem to pine for the listener's attention rather than command it. This is especially tragic when the band have clearly put a non-negligible amount of thought behind the understated yet menacing aesthetics and concepts of this disc. Just look at that album cover; it practically demands challenging and eccentric music for accompaniment.

Despite all its shortcomings I must commend Blind Spite for this EP, as they have at the very least attempted to do something that is refreshing and distinct in the increasingly fetid death metal genre. At this task, they have most certainly succeeded, as I am at a loss to think of any band that sounds at all like them. I would much rather see a band push themselves to forge something new and release a record as multifaceted as Dethrone the Earth, than to gaze back in time to see what Suffocation riffs they can pass off as their own. The EP is a good listen, and hopefully with some added confidence, the band will play to their strengths at the more progressive and avant-garde end of the spectrum. If they do, the full length will certainly be one to watch.