Arches of Entropy

Before the lid was even closed on Slugathor, the main songwriter, Tommi Grönqvist, had started out with another project already. That other project is Desecresy. Yes, the misspelling is intentional, must be in this day and age. For one reason or another, Desecresy has Tommi performing all of the instruments himself, only the vocals are done by a friend of his, a live bassist for Slugathor. Obviously, both bass and guitar are familiar to him so no surprises there, but the drums are a bit of a brow raiser.

It actually is very evident in the music. The drums of Ilmari Jalas in Slugathor - an obvious reference point - were always full of groove and little fills and bits to make things interesting. Tommi's drum patterns are... simple to put it bluntly. They rarely if ever change. The tempo stays the same. There are no fills and definitely no frills. While it might be counted as a flaw in some death metal, it actually fits well with the style that Tommi has gone for on the album. Everything is pretty much mid-paced and as said before, the tempo stays the same much of the time. The riffs are rather simplistic as well and repeated often, the same with the sparse leads. There are a few here and there, but all are simplistic and mostly there to enforce the ritualistic aspect of the album.

That's what a lot of the album feels like: A ritual of summoning and conjuration. A ceremony to bring forth unknowable things from the depths of the unfathomable. While everything is rather primitive and simplistic, the definite catchiness is still there. None of the riffs are boring or downright dumb, as catchy things are sometimes wont to be. They're there to serve the purpose of the ritual, not to draw the attention of the listener so they're kept smart and fitting to the whole. The only non-Tommi issue of the album, the vocals, are a hoarse, deep grunt. Not very special, but they're surprisingly sparse as well and serve their purpose surprisingly well.

The album sounds too simple, too uncouth, too quickly done at first listen. Like Tommi was itching to get something out to leave Slugathor's ashes in the dust even before the wake was done. But after a few listens it starts to come together. The riffing and drums coming together as a ritualistic whole. This has been realized and these are the two things brought to the foreground constantly. Even at the rare times the vocals surface, the focus is kept on these two things and how they roll the album forwards, keeping the momentum. Definitely not an album for everyone, but an amazing one nevertheless.