Covered in Decadence

There really needs to be a special category or icon to use in instances like this, where a band's music/album/demo is just mind-blowingly fantastic that it just makes you want to rip open your computer because you can't grade it high enough.

This is one of those instances. Escarnium are a new death metal band from Brazil. KRISIUN KRISIUN KRISIUN KRISIUN. Okay, there we got it out of the way. Strangely and refreshingly, Escarnium don't do the Krisiun-knock-off thing. However, their influence on this band is immediately noticeable, with the raw fury and aggression these guys play with.

The album starts off with the title track, "Covered in Decadence". Blast beats start things off, but then as soon as you're thinking "here we go, another Krisiun hyperblaster", things shift into SWEDISH territory, reminding one more of Vomitory's last few albums. These guys infuse a cool sense of melody into their rawness. Bear in mind, this is NOT melodic like At The Gates/Arch Enemy/Soilwork. Its more like old Entombed and Necrophobic, with less black metal shades. Regardless, these riffs are memorable, and you'll be wanting to hear them again right after you first hear them. Overall, this track is the most unassuming and straightforward, hiding the madness to come.

Next up is "Enfeeblement of Iconoclasm" which might be the band's strongest track, and features the best use of an explosion I've heard since Hate Eternal's "Conquering The Throne" opening. The song starts with a viscious, raw, yet melodic, blastbeat hyper-attack, and then blasts off (literally) into pure, straight death metal ecstasy. You can hear the guitarists going nuts on the low E string with their right hand, reminding one of old Slayer recordings. It switches into a fast triplet churn for a verse, before shifting to a build up launching-pad for the first guitar solo of the demo. This is straight old school thrash styling, but its death metal, and combines Brazil, American, and Swedish stylings all in one, together. Its incredible, really.

The band also showcases their song-writing brilliance with 2 guitars on this song, doing some really awesome interplay stuff and melodic build-ups to more blasting and some EERY haunting melody, before actually bringing in a CLEAN guitar part overtop the madness. This shit is so impactful and downright effective. Everything after the blastbeat building at 2:29 is so fucking incredible.... the last minute and a half of this track is worth $50, in my opinion. The band took a risk here, and it paid off in spades. Nobody else can combine melodic eeriness with sheer aggression and raw visciousness like these guys.

The 3rd track, "His Final March" starts off with some sample in Spanish and some cool vocal shifting effects, I think, and thankfully is over by :43. This is a good use of a sample; 99.99999% of every other band that uses them makes it boring, and makes me hate them. These guys found something tasteful, and it really sets up the aggression that comes after. This song reminds me of "Sothis" by Vader, although it really doesn't sound anything like it. Just the way the guitars and drums interact with the picking-hand rhythms makes me think of the stuff from De Profundis.

We find the band making full use of their aggressive melody on this track, engaging in a raw, oldschool Swedish grind, combined with stuff that makes me think of "Dawn of the Angry" by Morbid Angel, in the way the speed-picked melody riffs are backed by fast double bass. Another cool melodic break section shows up here, with the drummer doing some neat ride cymbal dancing, and then things shift to another epic launch pad section, where the guitars play a simple melody riff, and the drums get progressively more frantic and insane, with the kick drums actually increasing in speed. This sets up another solo, which sounds somewhat like what you would hear on Suffocation's old albums. Its not Azagthoth/Angeldeath-styled whammy bar madness, which is totally fine. This is the only point where I felt the music could go on a little more than it did, as the shift out of the solo into a really short verse seems a little pre-mature in its ending.

The last track, "Slaves of an Ending Fate" starts off with Escarnium's trademark Swedeath-styled melodic speed picked riffs, and again focuses in on the Vomitory-styled things. This song, however, features what I would say is probably the coolest drum fill thing, with the way the drummer uses his kick drums during the chug-chug crash-hit build up section early on in the song (:57 - 1:01). It makes me think of Horgh's crazy kick drums during the triplet part of "One By One" by Immortal. I didn't know anybody else could do that kind of shit.

This song may be their most melodic, as the majority of the song is speed picked melody riffs or melodic single note stuff, like when they get to the epic breakdown in the middle, with the monk-chanting choir sample thing. Don't let me give you the wrong idea, this shit is fucking epic and powerful. Its so crazy... this band is so mature for their first demo. They have really done their homework and studied what works with other bands and have really dissected their own music.

Again, though, this song shows the band's songwriting intelligence, as they skillfully shift from double-bass/thrash parts to blast beats and back down, smoothly arcing a climax of energy and flow with their music. Towards the end, this song gets a little doomy, with a big hulking riff to end things before the rave out.

This is the other part where the song seemed to cut prematurely; they had set up a big fucking epic launch-pad, but cut things short. Its not a bad or abrupt ending, but more of a not-realizing-the-opportunity-they-had kind of thing.


But again, this is a demo, and band's are supposed to learn and grow from here. So, despite the brilliance and maturity, there is still progress that can be made. It just so happens that the music they already have slays 99% of everything else that is out there.


Production-wise, this album is perfect. PERFECT. Every instrument is clear and focused, but the whole mix has a gritty atmosphere to it, somewhat akin to Incantation's "Onwards to Golgotha" sound; its very full and thick, but with a little grit around the edges, and a good amount of hulk and heaviness. Its VERY effective.

This leads me to another point. Production can make or break an album. With the style of music Escarnium plays, and the way they play/write their guitar riffs and drum stylings, a bland production could easily kill this album and render is very mundane and un-special. However, they managed to get the right production for the job. It makes their music, which actually isn't that complex or technical, seem more involved than ti really is, simply because it allows it to have much more of an impact on you. It's kind of like Cemetery Urn's debut, which features fairly straightforward guitar riffing, but the drum-centric mix allows it to seem more complex than it really is.

The vocalist sounds kind of like a mix between Alex Camargo from Krisiun, and Jeff Gruslin, the guy who sang on Vital Remain's (best album, imo) "Into Cold Darkness. Its a fairly straightforward and typical sound, but its done well and he sounds good. It fits the music, and actually I think is responsible for giving the band most of its aggressive death metal vibe. A different vocalist, and this band could easily be misconstrued as black metal, or something more akin to newer Belphegor rather than a straight up death metal band that happens to have a lot of melodic speed-picked riffs.


But overall, this is an absolutely incredible demo. The production is perfect, the music is inspired and creative, the band is eager and young, and things hold MASSIVE promise for this band in the future.

Really people, this is special music. Theres lots of bands out there who do their thing well, without offering anything new and are enjoyable to listen to and very proficient at their craft, but leave you without remembering the riffs or wanting to hear specific sections again, and don't ever hit you over the head with some really unique, risk-taking musical segments that push the envelope and show the band really pushing themselves.

Escarnium do all of those things. The music is memorable, fresh, and familiar, which is something very few bands are able to accomplish. You feel comfortable with Escarnium; they're building on tried-and-true archetypes, but clearly trying to bring something new to the table, and are actually succeeding.

I got my copy from Dark Descent Records, as the split, and this is VERY limited, so you better move now or else you'll be out of luck and VERY, VERY sorry you didn't grab it.

And to close things off, I guess I'll display my final point and argument for the brilliance of this band: after years of being 100% against cassette tapes and refusing to budge, this band broke me, and made me want to get a tape player. I went out and bought one JUST so I coud listen to this band's material. And strangely, it sounds incredible on tape; the analog warmth of the mix is really pronounced when you listen to it on a cassette player. So, I guess I finally get what all the hype is about.


But seriously... this band is amazing. You really ought to go get it right now.

Fans of Krisiun, Vader, Slayer, Entombed, Necrophobic, Vomitory, Suffocation, Vital Remains, Morbid Angel, and Deicide will absolutely gush over this.