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Dying Fetus > Descend into Depravity > Reviews
Dying Fetus - Descend into Depravity

A step in the right direction. - 93%

SinCaptor95, February 16th, 2015
Written based on this version: 2009, CD, Relapse Records

In 2007, Dying Fetus released what probably still is, to this day, their heaviest sounding album known as "War Of Attrition". Because it was really heavy, it had to have been good. Right? RIGHT?!? Well, unfortunately, it seemed to suffer from trying to sound as heavy as possible and forgetting that people usually listen to Dying Fetus for the catchy riffs and hooks to bang their heads in succession to. While it certainly had it's moments, it pretty much was the band's weakest outing. With drummer Duane Timlin being replaced by the amazing Trey Williams and guitarist Mike Kimball making an exit after the record's release, the band had been left as a 3 man act. Could only 3 people in a band that once had 5 members for 1 album manage to put out something decent and redeem themselves from their previous and weakest effort?

Short answer: Yes. Not only is "Descend Into Depravity" a huge improvement from "War Of Attrition", but it also brings forth a surprising amount of technicality to the table. It's always been known by this point that the members in Dying Fetus are talented musicians, but the fact that they seem to outdo themselves this time around in terms of being technical AND merge as many catchy riffs within the music that they do makes it all the more surprising. A lot of bands that try to be technical seem to forget that there's more to good music than hitting as many notes as possible. Dying Fetus is not one of those bands. Whether it's the INSANE opening for "Conceived Into Enslavement" or the note picking craziness in the middle section of "Your Treachery Will Die With You", the band manages to make all of those sections sound unique, which helps give the songs their own identity in addition to the rest of the music that those sections are surrounded by. The mixture of technicality, brutality, and catchiness is done excellently.

One thing that helps make Dying Fetus stand out as a band is that every album has a different and unique sound. "War Of Attrition" had a very modern and brutal sound to it, as opposed to the raw sounds that the previous records had. "Descend" manages to sound both modern and a little raw as well, which I love. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it since I'm not a producer, but you can tell from the crunchy guitars and snappy drum sound that this album sure as hell isn't trying to be what any of their previous efforts were in terms of sound. Hell, even the vocals sound way better this time around. When comparing this album to the last, you could say that the previous one was a bit compressed by comparison and that the vocals sounded somewhat buried in the mix because of how loud the guitars were. Here, there's no such problem. Even though you can barely make out a word from John Gallagher's gutturals or Sean Beasley's barks, they at least help make the music more identifiable here than on "WoA" because of how well balanced with the instruments that they are.

Speaking about the instruments, well, you have to hear them to believe them. As I've said, the band seemed to be more technical here than ever before, at least that's how it sounds to me. Moments like those 2 I talked about earlier and others in tracks like "Shepherd's Commandment" and "At What Expense?" (Those moments are self-explanatory) go to show that not a single person was fucking around. They went out of their way to step up their game, and they succeeded. The music is at it's craziest when it's obviously super fast, and thankfully doesn't become a borderline wank fest. There's also the slow, heavy grooves that you'd expect. Needless to say, those are great as well. Fetus doesn't fuck around with their grooves. Also, I would have to say that the main highlight aside from Gallagher's fast riffing has got to be Trey Williams. I don't think they could have possibly picked a better drummer. Whether the riffs are going slow or at 100 miles per hour, Trey knows exactly how to flow with everything and shine miraculously. I can't really do him any justice. When you listen to him behind the kit, you'll know what I'm getting at.

"Descend Into Depravity" was the best possible return to greatness that this band could have done. Hell, not only was it a return from greatness after 1 average album, but I would also go as far to say that it was their best album at this point. And man oh man, did they manage to even surpass this with "Reign Supreme". Anyways, "Descend" is a fantastic record with very impressive musicianship and fantastic, brutal riffs and grooves that will leave you with a sore neck afterwards. Check it out.

Highlights:
Your Treachery Will Die With You
Shepherd's Commandment
Conceived Into Enslavement
Ethos Of Coercion

One of Their Best - 95%

hexen, March 26th, 2012

Dying Fetus are most certainly an unnatural band in the sense that their songwriting is perhaps, not writing at all. What has become very characteristic of their showmanship is simply, very fast, technical riffing and drums, and also some very catchy guitar pieces as well. However, as of yet (though perhaps with the exception of "Destroy The Opposition", the band has yet to truly refine this philosophy and distinguish themselves from the rest of the brutal flock. With this album, Fetus have managed to refine their songwriting, polish their production, bring in a really talented drummer and the result is absolutely fantastic.

First you have the drumming, which literally beats the listener down from start to end. Trey Williams is an absolutely fantastic addition to this band, and while the bass and guitars have always been top notch, exciting and catchy - drums have just never lived up to that level. With Trey however, you have a drummer who is pretty much one of the best in the death metal scene. Exceptionally fast and eloquent (from a drumming perspective), Trey is a perfect fit for this style musically and adds a lot of talent that was previously somewhat lacking.

Guitars are of course at their succinct best, despite the atrocity that was "War of Attrition", this album delivers on virtually all fronts. The tone is very raw, perfectly defined and the musicianship, shredding and talent is all top notch. One thing kind of lacking was the existence of a real guitar solo, we are all aware that Gallagher can play both lead and rhythm with bewildering ease, yet even though there are some neoclassical inspirations which dwell here and there, there is still no real lead bit which really catches the listeners attention.

The lyrics on this album are also a downturn, despite being catchy and pretty darn angry at some points. Fetus have lost the ability to write decent lyrics as soon as former bassist and vocalist Jason Netherton departed and formed a far less interesting band, Misery Index. However, this is death metal, and the lyrics are not the sole component of the music although one definitely enjoys picking up the booklet and finding a few chosen words of wisdom even.

All in all, I am just happy with this record, and happy that the band have an album as dedicated, angry and raw as this. I wait in earnest for the next release, whenever it may be, and hope that Fetus can continue to deliver the goods as we all know they're capable of doing.

Its best bits are its fastest - 62%

matt85210, January 31st, 2010

Speaking from a personal perspective, Dying Fetus haven’t really featured for me as much as their 19 year career probably suggests they should have done, so it is very difficult to write a review about a band’s most recent release without being able to contextualize it against such an illustrious career: I have not heard ‘Destroy the Opposition’, I have no idea what makes ‘War of Attrition’ a comparatively bad release, and I couldn’t tell you when or how their line up has changed over the years. This should allow for a more honest approach to an album as the preconceptions about this release simply shouldn’t exist, but having listened to it a few times now, I could probably piece together a history of the band based solely on this release, and it is as follows:

‘Fetus formed in 1991, put out a few releases that created a staple sound for the band that were met fairly positively, they release ‘Destroy the Opposition’ in 2000 which is lauded generally as their finest work and spawns a miniature legion of copycat slam/NYDM bands who take as much influence as they possibly can from this release. Then suddenly Dying Fetus finds themselves taking influence from the bands that have taken influence from them and consequently they release a bland and uninspired album in the form of ‘War of Attrition’ (because the copycats are rarely as good as the original thing), and now we find ourselves here, amongst the aftermath of mild disappointment, where Dying Fetus are about to tell us where their musical direction will sway next.

Assuming the above to be true, the answer is that they have left the majority of us still undecided for one reason or another. We get off to an absolutely outstanding start with ‘Your Treachery Will Die With You’, easily the best song on the album. Its quick, its groovy, full of twists and turns and changes in tempo, memorable slamming sections and blasting sections… great opener. The drumming quickly drives itself to the forefront of this release, solid and tight throughout, and it is showcased no better than on this first track. ‘Shepherd’s Commandment’ is another good song, with Gallagher and Beasley grinding through a real fretboard workout when the song really gets going, with sweep-picking and technical crunch thrown around in equal (and pleasing) measure, and thankfully, when it comes to technicality, you will find no shortage of it on this album.

But simultaneously, they manage to demonstrate some highly frustrating moments as well, and oddly they are the moments that most people listen to Dying Fetus for in the first place: quite a few of the groovy beat downs are plain boring. And not only that, they manage to have a detrimental effect on the rest of the song. ‘Hopeless Insurrection’ starts off as an absolute tornado of trem picking and blasting, only for this lobotomized, half assed chug section to quickly reverse the forward steps taken by the rest of the music. ‘Conceived Into Enslavement’ really suffers from this formula; it practically groans with predictability and tired technique, while the potential in the title track ‘Descend Into Depravity’ is all but completely ruined by laboured palm muting that is close to being pedestrian in its banality.

The problem isn’t that they have chug sections (as I am partial to a bit of groove in my music). The problem is that they lack any real intent, which is always the danger when playing beatdowns as so many core bands have truly sucked the originality out of such riffs. To state the obvious, you have to be pretty good to keep a slamming groove feeling fresh, and Dying Fetus are surely one of the most capable bands when it comes to delivering it, which is why I am particularly disappointed that my palate for groove has been left largely, even if not entirely, unfulfilled with this release. As mentioned earlier, these are the bits that are borrowed from their own musical clones, these flat, lifeless beatdowns that do the rest of the riffs on this album a real disservice. As for the rest of the album, its very good when compared. I, for one, like Gallagher’s vocals and how they are employed throughout the CD, the guitar and bass work is superbly tight, there are some great blasting riffs to sink your teeth into here (the opener for ‘Descend Into Depravity’ and the mains riffs for ‘Your Treachery…’ and ‘Hopeless Insurrection’ come to mind) and the production keeps things nice and heavy without sounding too bass heavy.

All in all, the best and worst bits of modern death metal basically comprise this CD. To avoid releasing the same frustrating album again, Dying Fetus need to go back and work out what it was that made them so catchy and different in the first place. Or just take a few notes from current bands doing the right thing; if they listen to the new Devourment album and took a bit of influence from that, whilst ignoring all the other pointless copy-and-paste bullshit in the process, then on their next album they might just have something for everyone.

Dying Fetus - Descend into Depravity - 85%

ThrashManiacAYD, October 18th, 2009

Seeing how much the whole umbrella of metal is really just a reflection of society at large, finding a societal position for name worthy bands is a practice that could be extended across the whole spectrum and no doubt with interesting results to boot. In the world of death metal the phrase 'blue collar band' is often banded around and while that term could be applied equally to Bolt Thrower, Cannibal Corpse or Dying Fetus, we'll have to say 'Fetus settle for the position of the logger - dealing in huge weighty products and totally unrelenting of any carnage his actions may cause. Dying Fetus are so blue collar it hurts. "Descend Into Depravity" does just that, if your definition of 'depravity' happens to be blistering, immaculately played guttural brutal death metal, because for a band with an already fearsome reputation, album number 6 only adds considerable weight to it.

Throughout the myriad line-up changes to have been inflicted upon the band down the years, with just guitarist/vocalist John Gallagher remaining the only constant, Fetus have actually stuck with the same threesome for a whole 2 years now and this is reflected in the jaw-dropping tightness of the band. Really, pick any track of the 8 on offer and there will be instances a numero where the words "incredibly" and "tight" are about all that can come to mind during it's continual fight against being battered senseless by the onslaught of all three band members as they weave through riffs and blasts of startling aptitude and complexity. Long-time fans will not be surprised in the slightest by this, but as good as listening to any Dying Fetus is, the pleasure in listening to "Descend Into Depravity" is increased by the knowledge that they can still churn out such pummeling extremity after so many years and one classic already in the bag, "Destroy The Opposition".

The essential Fetus formula of the past is the formula of the present, and such is their nature both on record and live, no time is wasted with frilly accessories when this juggernaut is on the move. In just 33 minutes, Dying Fetus match the likes of Origin in producing death metal that is memorable, enjoyable and complex through the likes of the title track, "Ethos Of Coercion", "Conceived Into Enslavement" and "Shepherd's Commandment" just for starters. John Gallacher and Sean Beasley work the Carcass-style dual vocal partnership brilliantly and with a fantastically punchy production courtesy of one Steve Wright Dying Fetus come away with one simple aim: to attack you quickly, brutally and methodically. Need I declare if this ambition is achieved?

How "Descend Into Depravity" will settle in along with other albums of the Dying Fetus catalogue will only be revealed with the benefit of the passing of time but let it be clear in the now that it can justifiably be compared with "Destroy The Opposition", a record I had previously thought pretty untouchable.

Originally written for Rockfreaks.net

Their best since Destroy the Opposition - 90%

Lustmord56, October 8th, 2009

REVIEW ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT WWW.TEETHOFTHEDIVINE.COM BY ERIK THOMAS

A new Dying Fetus album isn’t quite the event is once was as since the bands crowning moment, 2000s Destroying the Opposition a revolving line up has kept John Gallagher from attainting perfect chemistry that was achieved with the classic Netherton, Voyles (who of course left after Destroy the Opposition to form Misery Index) and Talley line up.

However, after the underwhelming Stop at Nothing, Gallagher stripped the band back down to a four piece and released 2007s improved War of Attrition, and now down to a three piece (Mike Kimball has left the fold), Gallagher has retained bassist /vocalist Sean Beaseley (Garden of Shadows) and who has further settled into the band after two albums and replaced drummer Duane Timlin (Divine Empire, Forest of Impaled) with relatively unknown Trey Williams (Covenance, Severed Head). And the end result is an album that improves on War of Attrition, and is the bands much needed best release since Destroy the Opposition.

The overall formula for the music is unchanged since Destroy the Opposition and Gallagher and co deliver it with a precision and confidence the band hasn’t had in almost a decade; Thunderous grooves, squealing blast beats and Gallagher’s unmistakable growl all come together an energy and fire that the last two albums just didn’t have. The fine balance between slammy death metal and technical death metal is perfected again as the renewed sense of urgency is immediate from attention throttling opening statements of “Conceived into Enslavement” and ”Shepard’s Commandment”; classic Dying Fetus structures if ever I heard them and the rest of the album simply falls in line with a swathe in unmistakably Dying Fetus moments from start to finish.

Astute listeners will notice that there seems to be a little more presence of solos and even some sweeps amid the landscape leveling heft and rumble as tracks like “Descend into Depravity”, “At What Expense?”, “Ethos of Coercion” and “Your Treachery Will Die With You” subtly show. It’s not an Origin or Decrepit Birth like development, but one I noticed immediately as it added just a little something to the already devastating tracks.

I wanted to end the review on a rant about how Dying Fetus are actually responsible for the modern deathcore movement but that would put a downer on an pretty salty album proving Gallagher’s persistence and consistency as well as being one of the better death metal albums of 2009. Instead, I’ll tell you how awesome Orion Landau’s artwork is , exspecially inside the CD booklet.

A solid but standard 'Fetus release. - 68%

KnightProwler, October 7th, 2009

Firstly I feel obligated to advise you that I am not a huge Dying Fetus fan. Although I do quite enjoy their previous releases, I have not taken to them like most die hard 'Fetus fans. That goes without saying that albums such as Infatuation with Malevolence, Destroy the Opposition and Killing on Adrenaline have had a large impact on my general listening experience with death metal and have certainly shaped certain aesthetics I look for in extreme music.

Descend in to Depravity is certainly a decent death metal album, to say the least. In the first few songs we become well aware of the typical Dying Fetus sound that we look for in each release. For example, something characteristic of Dying Fetus’ sound are the catchy, breakdown grooves that always break out mid-song, alerting us to the fact that we’re experiencing the brutality of another solid Dying Fetus song. Rarely have I found many other bands that pull this off as well as Dying Fetus does.

Another aspect of this album that is consistent with previous releases is the vocals, sounding as guttural and brutal as always.

As the drumming changes pace, so does the mood in regards to the pattern of the riffs. This can be a good thing in a sense that it highlights certain parts of the song but in this case it’s a bad thing as it rarely takes off. For example in the track entitled “Atrocious by Nature”, the pace of the drums starts out fast and unrelenting before abruptly changing pace to a slower, catchier beat. Only seconds later it switches back in to gear and the beat that previously left me asking for more is suddenly lost. To me this is some what of an anti-climax and a bit unnecessary, almost turning me off the rest of the song.

In the track “Descend into Depravity” the bass had a slight moment of fame, as the rest of the instruments clunked out for a few seconds. However it was barely audible and the riff that was played wasn’t very outstanding, leaving me a bit unsatisfied.

What possibly saved this album from being another typical Dying Fetus release were the interesting melodic textures found in a few songs. Particularly in the songs Shepherd’s Commandment, Conceived into Enslavement and the ending of Ethos of Coercion. Although not typical of Dying Fetus the melody displayed in these songs often left me thirsty for more, as it some what complemented the brutal nature of Dying Fetus’ breakdowns and jaw breaking riffs.

Descend in to Depravity is definitely worthy of a listen if you’re a death metal fan and it’s certainly worthy of a purchase if you’re a Dying Fetus fan. This was a solid release by a solid, unrelenting band however it does not transcend their previous releases in terms of quality and the improvisation is fairly scarce and limited, making it a standard Dying Fetus album.