Bloodline Detriment

I have way, way, way too many average to mildly above average brutal death records like this in my collection. Like, for real, I don't even like Unique Leader, why do I have so many goddamn CDs from that label cluttering my shelves? Dead For Ten Weeks is one of those painfully middle-of-the-road brutal death bands I own material from; 'Bloodline Detriment' is about as straightforward as an '07 brutal death album can get, and while it doesn't offend me, I'm not sure I can think of a brutal death CD I've heard which features less personality.

This is (*sigh*) Dying Fetus or Dyscrasia type proto-slam modernized with a little bit of US Disgorge thrown in for good measure. It's got those gurgly Gallagher vocals, the claustrophobic Suffocation-inspired chug riffs mixed with some tremolo, and a drum performance that's all double bass trills and little cymbal runs here and there. The production is adequate. The songwriting is adequate. Everything's just adequate but never reaches beyond that. Basically every song on this album follows the same formula: mix one part blast beats with one part convoluted midpaced sections, throw in a pinch of novelty on each track to differentiate them (like the acoustic passage on that one track that I can't remember because they all sound the same), mix, serve lukewarm.

I can't bash this album for being bad because it's not; it's just a brutal death record that doesn't really attempt to be anything more. None of the riffs or musical passages are memorable because the band staunchly refuses to think outside the US brutal death box which has trapped about a thousand different bands across the country. I think the brutal death scene has become a little too infatuated with the idea of brutality but has no real interesting ideas of how to get there. Look at a band like Enmity: brutal death, but sounds completely different (and about a thousand times more brutal) than anything out there today. Dead For Ten Weeks just wants to be moderately brutal, and the result is an album where you forget each riff in turn as it's introduced.

You really don't need this. It makes Dislimb look interesting.