Descent

This was the first Fearer CD I bought. I liked it so much that I bought Confession to Hate and Backfire. I was a bit let down because I compared them with "Descent". Easily said, this is their best album. Everything else they released sounds derivitive of this album.

This album has the standard death metal intro track then the album starts. First song is the title track and I could tell I would love this CD the first few seconds I ever listened to it. Fearer is a no-bullshit, straight-up death metal band. Nothing fancy, just simple and effective.


The riffs and production alone make this album worthy of listening. The riffs are the backbone of this album. They are full of tremelo picking, palm mutes, and melody. Just when you think all the good riffs have already been written, you discover a band that manages to come up with something that doesn't exactly sound the same. Fearer hit the nail on the head with the songwriting. There isn't a single bad song here. Sure you might get a little impatient towards the end because all their isn't a wide variation in the music or the dyncamics. The vocals also kick major ass. Tom Zorn adds a lot to the album. The timbre of his voice is very distinctive and it reinforces my opinion of this album. There are plenty of shouts and growls, but no "singing". The interaction between the vocals and the guitars is enormous. The chorus to "level of violence" is a prime example of why the album rules. You just have to hear it. Drums are impressive as well. Fearer broke up because they couldn't find a drummer. That means either there aren't many good drummers in Germany, or their music is very demanding and hard to play. I commend Alfie for what he brings to the table. Also there is a Massacre cover at the end. I haven't heard the original but Fearer do a good job with it.

This is a very uniform album. Fearer use only 2 dynamics: Heavy and faster. You could say this album is similar to Kataklysm's "Serenity in Fire" with all the hyperblast drumming, machine-gun snare, and catchy riffing.


It seems as though Fearer has written the same song 10 different times and this album was the final result. Not to say that's bad because each song does sound good. So if you like that one song, you like them all. I'm just trying to get across that this record is very uniform and some might find it boring. There is absolutey 0 clean guitar on here, this CD is a relentless onslaught of sonic aggression.