Death Essence

Man, this is one of the best death/black metal releases I have heard in a long while. And I’ve heard lots. Kids, hope you are taking notes: This is the proper way to do this kind of music! Without a doubt, this tape is almost perfect. (Yeah I said almost, because there is one glaring flaw, but I’ll get to that later.) Overall, this is just all around excellent- dark, powerful, beautiful, and oh so heavy. Trust me, because I’m pretty jaded on death metal lately after hearing so much of the same thing over and over. Speaking of which, you know you’ve heard a great tape when you want to her IT over and over.

There are a few things which make this tape so effective. First, the way the dark, minor key melodies combine so beautifully with the crushing, suffocating HEAVINESS here. It really does have that killer, deep underground feel people so often strive for in modern releases but so seldom find, in part because of the constant stream of over-processed, paint-by-numbers kind of releases. The guitar tone is very distinctive, for one. It’s distorted, but not overly so, just thick and heavy but not noisy or over-done. And best of all, the riffs and songs are outstanding. They are melodic, but in a dark, cavernous, exotic way, not your generic melodic black metal riffs or your lightweight castles and unicorns major scale way. In fact, when take the riffs and combine them with that guitar sound, it just weaves that dark magic we all crave in a metal song. The songs, even despite their length average over eight minutes, flow well, never getting needlessly choppy or overwrought, always sticking to a main musical theme without any jarring transitions, or trying to cram a million changes into one song. Or really, making you wonder when the song is going to be over after eight minutes have gone by. Heck, even Metallica didn’t always get that part right. Again, a plus; it really sounds like these guys have been at this a long time as they avoid the common mistakes of newer, younger bands (e.g needlessly long or over complicated songs, or the opposite, too boring or simplistic songs.) Although the songs occasionally reach top speed, they rarely blast away at there endlessly or needlessly. Mostly it is solidly mid-tempo, with the fast parts there only to accentuate the heavy passages. Really, tempo is besides the point. The riffing style is so distinctive and just so dang good, it really doesn’t matter about speed or blast beats.

The production is excellent; well, except for one thing. The guitars are loud, heavy, raw, and powerful, like they should be. The bass is there, he doesn’t do too much other than what is needed, and the drums are not overly loud but just there at the right volume. The vocals, err, umm… well remember when I said there is that one glaring flaw? Well, the vocals are mixed too low. That’s really the main issue with this tape, but luckily it doesn’t totally ruin it, in fact it almost works in a weird way that it makes the vocals seem like more of an ambient background effect, creating atmosphere rather than just growling out the words. They are kind of a deep, rumbling growl, like the wind from a big storm raging in from the Pacific Ocean, not screechy or screamy. I still think they should have turned up the volume on the vocals in the final mix but really, with everything else sounding so good, why complain?

This is a really intriguing release. Only two tracks, but what great tracks, and what a great way to make an impression on a listener. This is what made death metal exciting way back in its infancy- not just the dark atmosphere (which it certainly has) but that atmosphere combined with great music. I didn’t feel jaded at all after hearing this tape, I just wanted to listen to it again. Those dark, spiraling, cavernous underground riffs will stick with you all day. Ah yes, remember cassette tapes? I guess they still make 'em. I had to dig out my old boom box to play this. Consider it a nice teaser for a full length CD which I hope they make soon.