Blossoming Decay

Noisem's debut album, Agony Defined, seemed to come out of nowhere; 26 minutes of death-tinged thrashing goodness, interspersed with frantic solos and contagiously grooving breakdowns. The success of that album catapulted Noisem onto continental tour billings alongside such titans of extreme metal as Carcass and Repulsion, and despite their youth (at the time of Agony Defined's recording, none of the members was over twenty) they seemed poised to make a strong name for themselves in the modern metal scene.

Two years later, their sophomore album, Blossoming Decay, has emerged, and it's very immediately a different beast from the debut. Aesthetically, the dismal (one could even say a little gothic) cover art is a departure from the skulls-and-carnage iconography of Agony Defined, and the themes on display in the lyrics have forgone the grisly tales of mortuary mishaps and psychosis in favour of something more ruminative: anxiety, nostalgia, and self-harm are themes which appear time and time again throughout the album, albeit explored with the same unflinching brutality that characterised earlier, more gruesome lyrics, and delivered in a rawer, hoarser shout than the first album's guttural snarl.

But the music? The music hasn't softened in the slightest to accompany the more nuanced lyrics and imagery; if anything, it's gotten even more intense. Blast beats feature much more prominently on this album than the last, propelling rapid-fire streams of tremolo riffing alongside the typical thrash beats, and aside from the two outliers that exceed four minutes, none of the songs manage to make it halfway past the two minute mark; the brevity certainly lends itself well to the blistering intensity of the album, but it also injures the occasional attempt to show off new ideas in Noisem's arsenal. For example, the ominous clean guitar chords that finish off Hostile End - Hollow Life would never have worked on Agony Defined, but as an 'outro', it lasts over a minute, and that's three quarters of the entire song... And then it continues well into the next song, Cascade of Scars, begging the question of why they bothered with Hostile End - Hollow Life in the first place. It's too short to really go anywhere, and its defining feature kicks off the following song, so why split them into two songs anyway if one of them is going to end up pretty much pointless?

On the other hand, they have largely excised an element I actually really enjoyed on their debut: the breakdowns. They were employed sparingly enough on Agony Defined, but they could really make a song where they did appear; here, they show up maybe once or twice, and really don't add much character to the songs when they do show up. That leaves the album to be carried primarily by the atonal tremolo riffs, and frankly, they don't really impress. Sure, they're intense, they're brutal, they're blisteringly fast, but none of that means much if the riffs don't actually stick with you, and they don't; fresh off multiple listens of the album, only one or two riffs actually come back to me. The rest is a haze of grinding distortion that's fun to listen to, fun to bang your head to, but provides the listener little reason to come back to the album, particularly when the album preceding it boasts not only speed and intensity but memorability as well.

It's not bad, and I wouldn't complain if somebody decided to put this music on, but considering the monster of an album it's following, I just can't help but be disappointed with Blossoming Decay. Perhaps it's unfair to compare an album to its predecessor(s), but judged on its own merits, this record doesn't fare any better. It's caustic, fast, and very intense, but albums that bring those elements to the table in spades are a dime a dozen at this point. I expect more than just that from good albums, and Blossoming Decay doesn't deliver.