We Rot Within

The debut full-length from Finnish death metallers Refusal offers a pretty consistent approach to their style throughout here that makes for some really intriguing times here. There’s a large focus here on tight, blistering blasts of grind-based riffing filled with frenzied, chaotic patterns as the focal point here, though at times are often augmented by a nice blast of more traditional-based rhythms. These impart more of a sprawling spatial awareness against these tight riffs that still maintain a sense of frenzied speed and aggression despite still containing numerous full-throttle, up-tempo sections here but the contrast between the two is considerable and quite noticeable and creates a distinct air of variety to the tracks rather than just simply grinding away on something without too much difference between the tracks. There’s a rather nice amount of grinding intensity and more sprawling efforts throughout here which tends to even out the music here away from blinding intensity but comes at the cost of robbing a lot of songs here of their vicious bite, which especially happens on the second half here where the songs are considerably weaker than the upper half here with that drop-off in intensity and really seems to give the second half a decided lack of focus that renders them filled with the occasional moments of fervent intensity that makes them enjoyable yet for the most part just decidedly decent efforts. As well, the weak drum-sound here that tends to rob the blasts of their true power and explosive frenzy is really lost which makes for an overall intriguing but heavily-flawed affair. It’s got room for improvement considering it’s a debut but there’s still some work to be done here.

The first half here is basically what’s on store throughout the album. Opener ‘Dignity in Void’ brings the rattling drumming and blitzkrieg riff-work into a grinding wave of intense rhythms bouncing along the chaotic rhythms as the scattershot riff-work brings along the more frantic patterns blasting alongside the up-tempo grinding riff-work in the finale for a vicious opening shot. ‘Dead End Society’ takes a clanking bass-line and steady drumming into a tight, frenzied blast of grinding riffing with an eventual turn into blistering grind with tight patterns and scattershot rhythms alongside blasting drumming that settles into a steady mid-tempo groove loaded with vicious rhythm blasts in the final half for a much more appealing and impressive offering. ‘Get Insight’ features a bouncy drum-beat alongside a simple series of tight rhythms blasting into feverish, frenzied riff-work and plenty of up-tempo patterns alongside the pounding rhythms as the dexterous solo section carries the utterly frantic rhythms along into the razor-wire riffing of the finale for another tight, vicious blast. The blistering ‘Short on Ammo’ brings a vicious, tight blast of grinding riffs and frenzied drum-patterns with plenty of tight rhythms blasting along throughout the up-tempo rhythms with the more frenzied patterns along the final half make this a fine if all-together too short effort. ‘Cannibal Instinct’ uses a steady series of grinding riffs steadily building into a frenzied, explosive blast of intense grind with the blistering drumming carrying the stylized mid-tempo rhythms along into the mid-section here that begins blasting back into the furious grinding patterns in the finale for a rather enjoyable and frenzied effort here.

Though there’s a decidedly obvious drop-off here in the second half, this isn’t all that bad. ‘Do Your Part’ brings rattling drumming and grinding riff-work buzzing along through the intense first half while bringing along more mid-tempo sprawling rhythms alongside pounding drum-work and continuous razor-wire riffing coming along with the dexterous drumming into the final half for a rather finely-tuned mid-tempo blast without the intensity of their other tracks. ‘G.O.A.’ offers a simple mid-tempo pace with intense razor-wire riffing and frantic drumming blasting along throughout the steady rhythms while the blasting, intense drumming and grinding riffing carry the rather mid-tempo and sprawling rhythms into the dragging finale for another decent mid-tempo effort. ‘Doomed’ takes blistering grinding drumming and frantic, frenzied riff-work blasting along at a frantic up-tempo pace as the feverish intense rhythms along into the extended droning mid-section breather as the sprawling atmospherics and instrumental segments carry on through the final half for a curiously out-of-place track that doesn’t sound at all like the rest of the bands’ efforts. Closing off, the title track offers simple blasting rhythms and mid-tempo grinding riff-work as the steady tempo continues bringing the scalding riff-work into more frenzied patterns and intense driving drumming taking the tight, intense riffing through the scalding mid-section with plenty of razor-wire patterns into the solo section and carrying into the finale to end this on a strong note.

While this one does offer a small set of flaws throughout here there’s more than enough positive to gleam here from their tight, frenzied attacks and utterly pummeling intensity to make them quite a natural fit for grind-heavy death metal aficionados or purveyors of more extreme modern metal while clearly being mindful of what flaws are present here really accomplish.