Descendant Upheaval

These guys are true pioneers. Not only did they release one of the first albums to be considered a death metal release (more on that later), but they were incorporating famous movies into their "gimmick," long before all those bands with names like "Nazgul" and "Amon Amarth" started popping up. Yes, DVC is indeed an acronym that translates to "Darth Vader's Church," and if he did go to church and they were playing music like the songs found on "Descendant Upheaval," I might actually be inclined to visit the holy grounds.

"Descendant Upheaval" is considered to be a death metal album, but why? Where are the evil sounding death metal tremolo passages? Where are the blast beats? Sure, the vocals sound like they could be fronting a death metal band, but they also sound like they could be commanding some random grindcore act, basically resembling a cross between Oscar Garcia (Terrorizer) and Karl Willetts (Bolt Thrower). This album definitely treads along the same waters that Bolt Thrower's "In Battle There Is No Law" did, taking heavy influence from the thrash bands of the 80's and throwing in some punk. Instead of placing emphasis on heaviness and capturing an evil sound, DVC just onslaughts you with catchy riffs that will get your headbanging. The opening riffs in "Embalmed In Stone" are absolutely brilliant and wouldn't sound out of place whatsoever on an album like "World Downfall."

Another instance where the "Grindcore" sound is clear is the inclusion of the bass. The bass sound can be heard pretty easily and it gets plenty of opportunities to shine on its own ("Southside Dirthead" and "Licentious Abandon") and get your head bobbing along. The drums are pretty fast, but the need to add blast beats never occurs with DVC and the need isn't necessary either. Another thing to mention is that the drums always have some kind of cool little fill or added nuance to the music which is always a positive.

So, is "Descendant Upheaval" a pure death metal album? No, not in this writer's opinion. There are certain instances where death metal trademarks can be found, but it almost seemed like something foreign to the band. The attempts to incorporate a slower or doomy sound on the intro to "Eve Angel" don't sound as awesome as they do with other bands at the time (Autopsy and Obituary in particular) and the intro to "Bow of Mortis" is nice, but not nearly convincing enough to declare DVC's debut full-length a death metal album.

This isn't the greatest metal album that you haven't heard of, but it's definitely worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of grindcore or early primitive death metal. On a closing note, make sure you don't skip the intro track "Cranium Overture," unless of course you are a freak and don't like Star Wars.

Highlights
"Mourning Sun"
"Embalmed in Stone"
"Descendant Upheaval"

Originally written for Nightmare Reality Webzine.
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“…drink the fire of birth…”

All I was doing was returning a D.B.C. record to its rightful spot in the closet, however bookmarking its place was an album by another band hidden in an acronym. D.V.C. a.k.a. Darth Vader’s Church’s Descendant Upheaval definitely wasn’t on my review front burner, but for some reason its ugly and indeterminable black, gray, and magenta cover (the devil’s flag colors if there are any) suddenly looked sort of appealing. It hadn’t seen light of day in some time, so what the hell.

Despite the cornball first impression, D.V.C. bridges the early concepts of Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower, kinda like a slower, supplementary death metal Terrorizer with more of a plan. Road flare the thing with instances of Anal Cunt-ish humor and a strange clandestine up-tempo vibe and you more or less have the band’s debut pegged. For ’89, the formula wasn’t all that widespread as less than half a dozen bands pounce on this roundabout idea almost simultaneously (sans the humor), though this four-piece, thanks to far off space station label Manufacture Sound Output Company, were easily doomed to metal’s lost regions.

A homegrown Star Wars “Death Star” theme starts the album off logically and lovably, guitars tuning “Cranium Overdrive” to the tanker floor while someone (credits are nonexistent on the lp) growls grumpily into the grime, and with that account the rest of the songs’ fates are sealed. While not overactive, rhythms are surprisingly plentiful and usually change with basic, if not semi-impetuous rationale. They enliven a soiled, mid-paced momentum that’s unconditionally crusty, cavernous, and vaunted as all death metal will be, meanwhile blast beats are fairly alien, hatching really only in the title cut, wordless “South Side Dirthead”, tempestuous “Gluttonous Fiend/Resume Aggression”, and maybe one or two more.

Lyrically these Floridians ramble with attempts at mature exposition but usually kill things grammatically like really early Sodom, even flaring with prose a tad (“…flowers of filth and flesh dwell until your dead, rise forth from the rot, once below forgot…”), but others are an equal mess (“…fuel the fire born the sky into the sun where we’ll never die…”), all typeset in a fancy and partially illegible font for our squinting viewing pleasure.

Unfortunately, when lining up grind/death (or grindcore, or goregrind, whatever) bands and their albums of the time, Darth Vader’s Church is simply MIA. Fault their moniker. Fault their record label distribution. Hell, fault their cover, ‘cos you really can’t blame their lack of world repute on anything else. Still, it’s barely a once a year player in my world.