Larry Rogers | Feburary 27, 2015

exhaustion suffered by the guys in the band. The album's other tunes - "Exhaling or Breathing In," "Tactical Means of Ouroboros," "Gravitational Collapse," "Contaminate," "Suffer the Children," "Ignus Fatuus," and "Conspiracy of Silence" all wallow in the same neighborhood; most do not feature solos, however.

 

Occasionally the tempo slows a bit, such as a solid minute chunk in the second half and last 30 seconds of "Suffer the Children." This has the benefit of allowing us to appreciate the speed even more, as it's almost as if they've put their skills on slow-mo for us to grasp what they're doing at full speed. It also likely allows them to get through concerts without falling over or having to do lines of coke right on stage.

 

Fittingly, vocalist George Paul is listed as “Guitars, Vocals” on the Metal Archives website. The band focuses primarily on creating music, while singing and lyrics come in a distant second. All the vocals sound the same on every song - that growl/scream death metal vocal pretty much anyone who doesn't want to be able to swallow lemonade or Coca-Cola for the next three days can pull off.

 

The songs on this album seem to exist solely to demonstrate just how proficient Justin Ennis is at keeping a beat at roughly the speed of a rabbit's panicked heart, how effectively Michael Dimmit and George Paul can keep up the rhythmic crunching of their guitars, and how bassist Ryan Jones can accentuate all of them for the duration of the album. Seriously, these guys make Slayer's songs sound like power ballads.

 

Anyone who loves speed/death metal will appreciate and enjoy this album. Dimmit, Paul, Ennis and Jones are tremendous musicians, crafting music for the bomb squad to relax to. As much as I love metal, and have for decades now, I still remain a bit confused at the genre's adoption of this growl/scream vocal aesthetic. If you like that aesthetic, George Paul has mastered the style as well as anyone else has.