| Reviews for Cosmic Atrophy's Codex Incubo |
| A hazy mist of Demilich and an air of Timeghoul... - 90% |
| Written by DrummingEdge133
on November 6th, 2009
|
| Cosmic Atrophy’s Codex Incubo…what can I say? This rather unique slab of music is extremely refreshing to hear in the realm of death metal. A lot of people will say that death metal is becoming stagnant, with the as intense and technical as you can be approach wearing way thin and becoming tiresome. I would agree that the more well known bands in death metal seem to be of the intense, blast endlessly until the listener’s ears bleed style. But, to be honest, I’m just spitballing here, because you will rarely find me listening to anything of the type I just described. Hell, I can’t even name many of them, yet everyone seems to think such style is rampant. I’m getting rather tired of the claim though that there is nothing beyond this as that is clearly bullshit… and Cosmic Atrophy are the perfect citation for my claim. There is so much more that bands can explore in death metal and explore they do, at least some bands. Cosmic Atrophy certainly is a band such as this. Now, people will say that Cosmic Atrophy sound like Demilich. Yeah, sure you can make that comparison fair enough. However, I’m more apt to learn towards the Timeghoul influence, at least as far as vocals and lyrics are concerned. The vocal style on Codex Incubo does have a very Timeghoul-y feel, as this is clearly the case on Codex Incubo’s epic 8 minute song (so to speak), “Doomed by the Cancer Domus.” This song is the longest on the album, and incorporates some unique vocals for death metal, of which Timeghoul also incorporated many years in the past. The vocals specifically found on “Doomed by the Cancer Domus” certainly have Timeghoul influence and vary from a deep ghoulish growl to echo-y singing. However, the only clean vocals found are on this track. The rest of the tracks use a familiar deep death growl. As for the riffing, they do seem to twist, turn and weave in a similar Demilich style. The guitarists often seem to be playing into and then off of each other, as if colliding into one another and then bouncing away into their own worlds again. This process seems to repeat generally on every track. I would say their riffing is actually higher pitched and thinner than Demilich as well. One of the guitarists is often doing some kind of solo-y feeling guitar line that often floats into and out of the foreground. There seems to be one central riff that each track is based off of and is repeated throughout, acting as a refrain and is certainly the riff that always sticks in my mind, as it is often dark, strange and sickly with subtle melody. Now on to the production, this possesses possibly my biggest and rather only problem with Codex Incubo. I noticed that I used the word “thin” to describe the guitar riffing, and that seems to be the case with all aspects of Codex Incubo… thinness. The production just seems a little bit to, well, thin for death metal. However, with the production as is, you can certainly hear just about everything Cosmic Atrophy has to offer. The bass is clearly there, if a little bit too low in the mix, and too clear. Muddy the bass and turn it up some and I think that could add some serious heaviness. Of course, I don’t mean Rottrevore bass heavy; I think that would be overdoing it just a little bit… but Codex Incubo is just begging to be heavier. In conclusion, Cosmic Atrophy is a fantastic band that is very gifted to say the least. Codex Incubo isn’t flawless, but for a debut album, how can much more be asked? This band is going to be something to experience in the years to come. I honestly can’t wait to hear their follow-up, which should be out soon from what I’ve read (on the M-A forums). Oh, and they added a real drummer too… I expect nothing less than a classic with their sophomore effort, I hope that isn’t asking too much. |
| Love the style, just not the songs - 60% |
| Written by autothrall
on October 29th, 2009
|
| I am always intrigued by the use of science fiction and Lovecraftian concepts in death and black metal, and Houston duo Cosmic Atrophy deliver plenty of potential, even if this album isn't quite honed to perfection just yet. Codex Incubo is a debut of brutal yet progressive death metal presented with a lot of dynamics and a dense, oppressive atmosphere. Cory Richards' brutal vocals dominate the mix over adventurous guitars, fusion leads and some solid bass playing. Unfortunately it doesn't always translate into exciting music. "Prelude to Phantasmagoria" and "Consumed from within the X-Zone" offer a great preview of their style, but it isn't until the fourth track "Cydonic Adulation" that I was starting to get into the music. And this is a pretty good track, with some discordant Voivod-like segments. "Doomed by the Cancer Domus" and "The Granfalloon" are both slower and less interesting tunes, and the album closes with "Adrift in the Lifeless Sea of Black", a cosmic ambient instrumental which I rather liked for its 2 minutes. The lyrics throughout the album are pretty interesting. On the one hand, I really do like this band's style. I think there is the possibility they could develop into a curious hybrid of Morbid Angel and Demilich (some elements of their sound reminded me of the latter). I just didn't think much of the material here was enough yet to truly immerse me, but I'm looking forward to hearing more. -autothrall http://www.fromthedustreturned.com |
| Crazed death metal jamboree, plus ambient outro - 90% |
| Written by Cheeses_Priced
on April 20th, 2009
|
| Consider the mighty dinosaur. These “terrible lizards” ruled the planet for many millions of years before suffering mass extinction as a result of a giant meteor impacting Earth. But in fact they live on, in a sense; our modern birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs. Yet, while we admire the nobility of the bald eagle, and the tastiness of the common chicken, this still must be counted a disappointing development. Death metal has suffered a similarly cataclysmic history. In the days of yore, 'yore' being circa 1992 perhaps, death metal bands of all variety fearsomely roamed the landscape... and then something struck the Earth - possibly Norwegian black metal, possibly alternative music, or maybe just damned kids with their damned iPods and Xboxes. Anyhow, in our modern age, we're largely surrounded by deathcore bands, and tech death and the like – the death metal equivalent of pigeons. They're common enough and they can legitimately be considered descendants, but they're still not good for much else other than sneaking up on and hitting with baseball bats, and even that's illegal most places. Oh, and there's been something of an upsurge of 'old school' death metal bands of late, with some good results, but I’m not overly excited about most of them. It's like how they haven't figured out how to clone dinosaurs yet, so if you want to see one in an amusement park, you have to settle for an animatronic one. There are similarly life-like mechanical death metal bands out there. Cosmic Atrophy, on the other hand, is something like the two-headed fire-breathing Tyrannosaurus with laser vision that God, with his characteristic cruelty and spite, has denied us – an endpoint of evolution that might have been, rather than a recreation of something from the past or the sort of thing that fits in with other things going on in the present. It's the old school death metal of the future. As for what this album sounds like, exactly, attempts at description inevitably seem to turn toward Demilich. The Demilich influences are not so overwhelming, but that there are any at all is a rare enough occurrence to be worth remarking on. The riffing often resembles mid-to-newer Immolation a bit. Suffice it to say that there's much less of the straightforward, pounding riffing we expect from bands who are trying to set death metal right, and more focus on spindly, spidery, and otherwise just-plain-weird riffs, in pursuit of an otherworldly atmosphere. It’s worth remarking that all the drumming is provided courtesy of a machine. I have heard that it sounds exactly like a human, and I have heard that it’s obviously a machine. Speaking for myself, I originally thought it sounded like a human drummer who happened to be heavily influenced by electronic music, on account of the fast, tricky bass-snare interactions. Consider me a layman on the subject! Different theories on where exactly to go with that basic sound pull the album in a couple of different directions. There are a couple of very direct, catchy songs, along the lines of Immolation circa Unholy Cult or so, some more amorphous and experimental ones (the closer “The Granfaloon” in particular)… and then the massive, epic, pull-out-all-the-stops 8:38 “Doomed by the Cancer Domus,” which errs somewhat on the side of sounding like just a bunch of riffs laid end-to-end, but does serve its purpose as a one-off. Unquestionably, a successful death metal head-trip, though at under half an hour, short one (leaving me without much to talk about!); even so, do not hesitate to seek it out. We hope that the seeds of the future lie here. |
| Swordsmasters in aluminium armor - 89% |
| Written by Napero
on January 10th, 2009
|
| Cosmic Atrophy has its own intimate ties with the Metal Archives, and the userbase of the MA board has been lucky enough to be able to follow the birth of the band's debut album on almost a daily basis; it's been almost like a birth in a soap opera: the kind that takes 9 months, as everybody well-versed in biology knows. The first thing to be revealed to us was the cover art, roughly a year before the first actual MP3 track. Yours truly was even lucky enough to get a link to be upstart band's MySpace page so early that the page view counter showed zero, and my claims to being the band's Number One Fan are justified, at least on a measurable, juridical level. As a debut album, Codex Incubo is both an incredibly bold statement and an unfortunately timid creation. The musical style is death metal, and the admitted influence of Demilich is instantly obvious. However, there's no scent of emulation here. No, while the riffs of Demilich twist and turn like the mile-long desert worms of Dune in heat, Codex Incubo keeps them in tighter reins. A part of the same endlessness is there, but Cosmic Atrophy doesn't go quite as far in the chaotic stretching and borrowing, and the riffing is more controlled, more concise and perhaps a bit easier on the listener's mind. While the album certainly places heavy demands on the attention span of the audience, the otherworldly insanity of Nespithe is quite not there. Still, the boldness and innovation of the young band is remarkable; Codex Incubo is definitely not easy listening or ambient, but a hungry beast that yearns for and demands your attention all the way through its blissfully meagre 34 minutes. The exceptionally clear production is a blessing and a curse for the band. It's possible to hear literally anything you could hope for and witness the technical brilliance, but at the same time, the eternal compromise between heaviness and fidelity strikes back: Codex Incubo would personally love to be heavier, and that would require sacrificing something from the sharp and porn-honest (shows everything) production. Manly meatiness on a skinny guy's frame tends to hide the machinery that makes the body move and function, but who misses a sixpack when you can have a keg instead? The clarity is incredible, but it makes the album pull some of its punches and works against it. There is a pronounced lack of heaviness, and the overall effect turns from a devastating, bulldozing body block into a series of quick and hellishly accurate jabs. The lyrical content wanders into unknown dreamlands in the best illuminated tradition: surreal, lovecarftian, stream of sub-unconsciousness. Don't try to understand them, there's not point in that; things known by the Illuminati are not meant for mere mortals. The vocals delivering them are, unfortunately, perhaps the weakest link on Codex Incubo, but do their job well enough. A need for more battering, guttural vocals is there, though, and as in the case of the production, some of the finesse could well be sacrificed on the hungry altar of heaviness. The technical performance of the two guitarists is astounding, considering the fact that this is a debut album. There's nothing to complain about, and the immense metalness of the music is purely based on riffing; the songs are not sing-along pieces, definitely not catchy, and some even nonrecursive. No choruses, no catchiness, just the way death metal is supposed to be. Complexity, uncompromizing and nonmelodic songwriting, and more riffs than you can shake a stick at. Metal is an artform based on distorted guitar riffs, and Cosmic Atrophy plays truckloads of distorted guitar riffs. Metal, in other words. Cosmic Atrophy's debut is an exceptional display of technicality, vision and songwriting. The main flaws are in the sound, and the lack of brutal heaviness makes it occasionally sound a bit too timid and restrained. The feeling of holding back results, and perhaps knocks the album down a few rungs; the hugely skilled swordmasters are clad in armor made of aluminium instead of hardened steel. Still, the band has recorded an extraordinary debut, and a great promise has been made for the future. This is indeed a very enjoyable album, and one of those that take several spins before opening enough for a final verdict; that's always a sign of a good album that will stand the tests of time. Rexxzellent! |
| Death metal masterpiece? Why yes, yes it is. - 96% |
| Written by Avaddons_blood
on December 20th, 2008
|
| Cosmic Atrophy is a very new band hailing from my glorious home state of Texas, however that does not make me more lenient in my review. Despite the fact that he is a well known moderator at a message board I frequent I will critique his music with the same judgment I would any other artist. I will not be more permissive simply because his band is not well established within a more typical realm of the metal fan base, or is more obscure if you will. It will be critiqued on the same level as any other artist or band. With that said, this album fucking rules. What an amazing debut. The fact that the band has only been in existence for a single year is testament to the members musical and artistic capabilities. I will admit that the style of death metal they play puts me in more accord with the release. The band is like the child of Demilich and Timeghoul. However, Cosmic Atrophy is not Demilich or Timeghoul but it's own unique entity. It will of course appeal to fans of such bands. The riffing in this album is simply orgasmic. They are very divorced from what you may expect to see in death metal nowadays. Twisted creations that have a tendency to sound very other worldly. The vocals seem to be rather atypical for death metal as well, but remain somewhat intelligible. From what I here, the band uses a drum machine. They could have fooled me, I probably would never have suspected such without being told. That is exactly how a good drum machine should sound, like a drummer on a real kit. The beats are pretty interesting as well, they never rely on a barrage of blasting. In fact, there is very little blasting throughout the album. I might actually prefer a little more. I don't really have many complaints though. There isn't much to complain about in general when it comes to this album. The song structures are interesting and memorable as it seems everything on the album is. I believe this to be the best death metal album of the year. Well, that is of the ones I heard at least. If I haven't hear them I doubt that can compare to this masterpiece. I recommend this to pretty much any fan of death metal, but especially to fans of Demilich. |