A Pax of Heretical Evolution

There is this unwritten rule that brutal bands tend to follow where lyrical subjects need to specialize in gore and violence, often to such an exaggerated sense that each song reads like a forensic handbook with every major method of death via force or disease is cataloged in the most detailed of fashions. Whether a band trends towards either the slam or technical side of the equation, this rule applies to the vast majority of bands coming out of either the east or the west. As such, it's always a pleasant surprise when bands like Pathology take time to move away from this approach and mix in something a bit more nuanced, which may seem counter-intuitive as death metal in general, and its brutal subsets in particular are based all but totally on impact alone. Formless Terror is another band that has opted to deviate from the lyrical roads most often traveled, though in every other respect their sophomore LP A Pax Of Heretical Evolution is a fairly plain album.

As far as brutal albums go, this has something of a retro feel to it, as the principle influences on their riffing style tend to be Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse. There is definitely a sense of busyness and animation at work within these methodically structured songs, most of them being fairly moderate in length by the standards of the style and varied in pacing. There is a greater degree of groove and slower paced bridges in these songs than is typical for the older school bands mentioned, but they are a bit more elaborate than what would truly fall into slam territory, at least by the standards of bands cropping up after Dying Fetus helped to popularize the concept. This along with a generally forceful and quasi-intelligible vocal presentation further lean this thing into a partially old school reinterpretation of modernity, to speak nothing for the occult-obsessed lyrics which are only occasionally dealt with in brutal circles today.

Though a generally solid and by-the-numbers experience in auditory destruction, as this album progresses it becomes fairly clear that this band is limited in their faculties when it comes to song creation. Similar sounding ideas, though in themselves fairly technical and impressive, start to wear thin as other aspects of their influences are generally eschewed, if not outright avoided. There aren't any guitar solos or even the sort of depth of progression that comes with a multiple guitarist approach, which results in songs that are a tad monotonous given the lack of any real depth of texture and song lengths that would clearly justify something more than a few tremolo riffs here and there. This isn't to say that precision based riff monsters such as "Giants Of Unconquerable Bloodline", "Spectacle Of Cosmic Debauchery" or the riff-noodling nightmare of a closer "Bowels Of Chaos" are poor songs by any measure, but every song taken together sees Formless Terror being a one trick pony.

It may be a cop-out to simply throw out the old "good for what it is" cliche, but that's the best way to describe this album. It's an exercise in getting the job done and it has a few extremely well put together songs that are moderate in length and contain a fair degree of variation within their limited arrangement. But the sort of atmospheric quirks and technical noodling that usually comes along for the ride with bands like Cryptopsy, Pathology, and even lesser names like Abominable Putridity would have been a welcome additional element to this extremely straight-forward album and given it a greater degree of intrigue and pull. This is a good album for those who want their brutality served up plain with no added colors or flavors, I guess I'm just the kind of guy who likes some additional icing on his cadaver cake.