Worthless Desires

Worthless Desires is an admirable start for New Jersey death metal crew Replicant. However, this really doesn't compare to their killer debut album Negative Life. The mix isn't as powerful, the riffs aren't as unique and the songwriting not as memorable. However, that doesn't make this less worth listening. It's cool to see the seeds of what would become something great. The angular madness, the filthy riffage, the subtle atmosphere - it's all there. While I'm not sure that I'd flat out recommend this when you could just listen to Negative Life instead, it is cool as a fan of the band to trace back all the elements they fleshed out to full potential on the debut full length.

The things that make Negative Life such a standout death metal album are mostly here. The biggest thing missing are the overtly atmospheric sections; the atmosphere here is much more cultivated from incidental murk in a way you might expect from Incantation. There's the start of the Demilich twisty riff madness, but it's much more subdued here. There's not as much of a tech-death flavour, either. There's slower stomps, but a lot of this function as filthy-as-fuck OSDM worship (think more the New York/New Jersey scene than the Florida crew). The drums are well performed but not nearly as fun and adventurous as on the debut. The vocals function as a caveman grunt, and do much to bolster brutality.

All that said, there is one song that really does foreshadow what to come. "Anti-Instinct: The Withered End" is by far the most diverse song of the EP. It starts out with just as much off-kilter Demilich weirdness on anything from Negative Life. We get the one hint of atmosphere not typical of death metal on this EP - a woozy seasick psychedelic passage - before the death metal comes crashing in with a drawn-out doom lurch. It's really the only reason I'd actively listen to the EP besides just wanting to see how they progressed.

While Worthless Desires is a far cry from the stunning quality of their debut album, it's not a worthless find that's doomed to be relegated to cheap bargain bin status. This is some filthy death metal fun, and has the seeds of the greatness they'd later achieved. Oh, and "Anti-Instinct: The Withered End" is a legitimately killer song. While hardly essential, Replicant's debut EP is a very solid listen.