Dismantling the Decomposed Entities

This album… this album is truly one of the best and most unique slam/brutal death metal releases I have ever heard. Out of the hundreds of extreme metal albums I have listened to, this record has possibly the best replay value of any release within this genre. There is a reason this band’s genre is listed as “progressive/brutal death metal” – in fact, within brutal death metal, this album is the most “progressive” that I have ever heard, hands down. However, instead of continuing to praise this album without going into any great detail, I’d like to go into the details that make this one of my all-time favorite metal records.

The instrumental prowess displayed on Dismantling the Decomposed Entities is a pleasing assault on the ears. The guitar tone is like none I have ever heard – almost extraterrestrial in its texture and feel. The tone is put to excellent use with the riffs being varied all across the fretboard, completely avoiding the unfortunate brutal death metal stereotype of only using the bottom two or three frets. The melodies are catchy as fuck, too. The drums are another beast entirely; they are a complete barrage of chaotic but tightly-performed fills, blasts and double bass patterns. They are also pleasantly organic-sounding, which seems to be a rarity with modern death metal. Finally, the bass is perfectly audible, and is given a few sections to itself. The bass tone complements the guitar tone with its almost resilient, thunderous sound. All around, I would jump for joy if Decimated Humans released an instrumental version of this album… but that’s not to say I’m not in love with the vocals on this release.

Lennon O’Donnell (also of Pestilent and Hateful Transgression) is Decimated Humans’ vocalist, and I cannot praise his monstrous, alien-like voice enough. His vocal talent seems to have improved dramatically from the band’s previous release, an EP called Overture in Barbaric Mutilations; either that, or the vastly different production on this album gave his voice a different tone. Whichever is the case, Lennon’s shrieking highs, rumbling gutturals and the occasional pig squeal are a welcome accompaniment to the aforementioned beautifully brutal instrumentation. In addition to Lennon, however, four other vocalists are featured on Dismantling: Cody McConnell of Goemagot, Jason Evans of Ingested, Kirill Nazarov of Disfigurement of Flesh and Duncan Bentley of Vulvodynia. My personal favorite would have to be Duncan Bentley, but I did not find any of these guys’ vocals unpleasant – quite the opposite, in fact. They all do a masterful job.

In closing, I really, really love this album. I have probably listened to it 25 times front-to-back, and it is still fresh every time I put it on. I would highly recommend this record to anyone who enjoys heavier deathcore or slamming brutal death metal. I can’t think of anything about this album to criticize, which is a good sign that the album is worth a listen. The mixing is stellar, the vocals and instruments are both heavy and harmonic at once, and let’s not forget the sick-ass cover art.

A wholly international act, brutal death metallers Decimated Humans have soldiered on as a two-piece after a minor line-up reshuffle that leaves Australian Wyatt Chee on the instrumentation with Nevada-based Lennon O’Donnell on vocals. Initially released April 16, 2016 on Transcending Records before a reissue August 12, 2016 on Ghastly Records, this second full-length album showcases more of a technical/progressive side while still incorporating their signature slams and blasts.

For the most part this here is a truly unrelenting and savage monster of an album with plenty of truly lethal and blistering rhythms running throughout here. The main influence here is a ravenous technical assault that generates a truly frightening attack here by managing to make the riff-work truly complex and challenging while making for a whirlwind of truly blistering leads alongside the tight, densely-layered chugging riff-work leading this along it’s paces. Not only is the technical savagery littered with impressively progressive leanings in being able to meld that level of musicianship into the tight space for the arrangements but then to mix all this blazing technicality into a slam-based concoction is just decimating, leaving this with a truly vicious and utterly ferocious blast of brutal material that’s just as much infectious as the brutality. The swirling technologically-based production that renders it all into a concise, mechanical blast of feral energy is a truly enjoyable burst of energy that’s absolutely spellbinding and brings it all into focus with the technically-precise riffing getting the chance to shine while making the pummeling rhythm-section just bulldoze everything in it’s wake in a sea of blazing, gory glory which is what makes this one such an intimidating and ferocious assault. The music may indeed be a blur of noise to some, but it’s hardly worth nitpicking about when the rest of the material is this good.

Frankly, this here is near-flawless account of truly frightening technicality and pummeling brutality that’s as listenable and infectious as it is devastating and vicious, which leaves this one of the genre’s very best overall examples and makes this required listening for fans of any style incorporated into this assault on the ears.

While Decimated Humans' first album primarily was just your typical slam album with tons of great ideas that I loved, they stepped their game up big time on this second full-length. Everything you enjoy about that more technical side of brutal death metal is present here and in an almost sci-fi sort of atmosphere. Guitars are more technical, and almost progressive sounding... while the slams are toned down but still present. Oh and the vocals, the vocals are even better!

Just like To Provoke Genocide, this album begins with a sound sample from a video game, really sets the mood before the whole carnage starts. The album's first three tracks blast your ears combining technical styling with barbaric riffage and never stopping to play a slam or breakdown until the band sees fit to it being appropriate.

I wanna go out on a limb here and presume that they didn't want to make the same album twice hence the totally different sound change, but still had enough ideas left over after making a whole full-length album and even a EP in between to still deliver something fresh in time for this year. Their song Sanguivarous which was on their EP from a year earlier is even present here and re-recorded / updated to fit in with everything else they have going on. Intelligent prog riffs combined with wignorant slams shouldn't work, but somehow they do as the band also decide to incorporate synthesizers and electronics periodically across the record (Disfiguring the Goddess style). The vocals are also fantastic. It's hard to describe, but unlike To Provoke Genocide which was your typical brutal death metal roars/gutturals mixed in with some other ridiculous sounds, this time it's like a combo of Jenovavirus meets Inherit Disease. His highs have also gotten insane in some sections, unleashing this demonic haunting shriek on some of the tracks... one grand example of this is during the slam of Consumed by Cadirus, nearly gives me chills.

Speaking of vocals, the album contains guest vocals from the vocalists of four bands: Ingested, Goemagot, Disfigurement of Flesh and Vulvodynia. Being a big fan of a couple of these bands, this surely was a treat! Their appearances enhance the tracks more so being that they all sound so different from each other and you really know when it's finally their turn to eat up the mic over Decimated Humans' onslaught of mayhem and chaos that is played as the album goes on. The only real complaint I have about this album is the production, not my most favorite thing in the world since the vocals and drums tend to bury the guitars in some (but not all) sections. Dusty Boles who plays drums on this album is without a doubt not a bad drummer, his drum performances in bands like Serpents and Rose Funeral were impressive and here it's no different. He can be a little off-time with some of the slams be it he will sometimes just blast through them, but he did not do a bad job.

I believe this album has already to climbed to what I can say one of my favorite releases of 2016 thus far and will definitely at the least of things receive an honorable mention from me by the end of the year. There's something about albums from these guys that I don't mind listening to from beginning to end which is sometimes a problem for me when it comes to most other brutal death metal. They keep things interesting and I appreciate that. If you like either technical or brutal death metal or combinations of the two, don't miss this album.