Deevolutional Stasis

Man, going straight from Cirrhus to this was quite the experience, let me tell you.

I usually don't expect particular quality from Eastern European death metal bands - sue me. That being said, when I first learned of Hedonistic Exility, I found them to be pretty immediately likable. Deevolutional Stasis has none of the crappy production quality or general incompetence that I've come to expect from the attempts of countries like Ukraine or Russia to make decent death metal - in fact, Hedonistic Exility have opted for a genre of death metal which basically necessitates a crystal-clear sound and excellent musicianship to pull off, so all the more praise to them for managing to make something actually enjoyable.

This is some pretty intense stuff, and I'm sure half of the people who check it out will disregard it as garbage within the first 10 seconds. This is technical death metal with its heart in the perfect place. Hedonistic Exility obviously realize that while the poor eunuchs and prettyboys of the world are prancing around listening to Quo Vadis and Obscura while applying their mascara, the REAL MEN are listening to Viraemia and Brain Drill and by golly WE WANT MORE OF IT. In a word, this is tasteless, and that's exactly how technical death metal should be. If you want me to get more detailed, this is basically Viraemia mixed with the blunt force pummeling of a particularly heavy deathcore band - I guess the whole approach isn't far too disconnected from Rings of Saturn, but Hedonistic Exility's particular brand of wank is a bit more urgent-sounding, with a certain eerie droopiness reminiscent of the aforementioned Viraemia. The songwriting here is nowhere near as solid or memorable as Viraemia's, but it could be argued that it makes up for that by being twice as punishing in a handful of moments spread throughout the EP. Hedonistic Exility's guitar tone is, in absolute terms, a bit heavier and more capable of tossing its weight around, so when they switch from the wank to a lower, more churning riff and then pile on a gravity blast, it gets absolutely insane.

Some of the deathcore chugs and breakdowns in this are cool, particularly the heavier ones, but lots of them actually feel like the song is transitioning to something less heavy since most of the non-breakdown sections are so ridiculously high-energy. The music is constantly juggling itself around, taking remnants from previous riffs, restructuring them, and spitting out a new sweep-picked riff as the end result. The rhythm changes are constant, and while this leaves the tracks feeling more like collections of ideas than "songs", it means that the music is constantly releasing momentum and building it back up again, so it doesn't really need breakdowns as a form of release like most regular deathcore-influenced compositions do. Another notable downside is the vocals: the growls are well-executed if not particularly fitted to the release, but there are also occasional pig squeals which are far too shrill and loud, even considering how shrill and loud everything else about Deevolutional Stasis is.

If you're as crazy about Viraemia as I am, you probably know that there's not really much out there that truly captures the level of technicality and intensity on which they operate. This is one of the closest homages I've found - it's not exactly constant noodling, but it's extremely technical and arguably even more fervent and energetic than Viraemia's EP is. If you're still reading this, you almost certainly know whether or not you like this, so go ahead and check it out. Or click back to the main page and continue aimlessly browsing, if you're one of those people.