Perpetual Decay

Fans of Obliteration's second, better known record Nekropsalms might have been a little surprised if going in reverse order to discover their full-length debut Perpetual Decay, because while the two albums share an unflinching love for the old school of death metal, there is a discernible difference in their approach. The 2009 sophomore was borne of slow, creepy atmospheres that dredge up the haunted, cavernous morass of being slowly ingested by some ancient, ghastly entity, but its predecessor was fast and firing on many cylinders, picking up from the Total Fucking Obliteration EP and then destroying the material there.

Perpetual Decay is crisp, dynamic and very polished death metal that merges the bleak, grisly influence of US masters like Obituary, Autopsy, Master and Death with the frenetic speed of a Morbid Angel, Deicide, Malevolent Creation or early Suffocation, but in some places you'll also hear some Dutch influence from Pestilence (up to Testimony of the Ancients, in particular the vocals) and Asphyx. In other words, they manage to capture a wide range of their forebears in a very straightforward approach that relies entirely on the strength of its riffs, and fortunate for us all, several of these riffs are the type that, while not so original, are energetic and fun enough that they warrant some repeated attention.

The album sets its pace early with the opener "Sadistic Nekroabortion" and then rarely lets up, though this very track does offer some slower segments of morbid, doom-tinged material. But tracks like "The Abominator", "Breeding the Sick", "Guts and Glory", and the title track are simply bristling with a cryptic, fiendish pallor of frightening cacophony, riffs so slick with blood and muddied graveyard soil that they almost trip over themselves in their haste to devour the brains of the living. "Consumed by Flames" briefly teases us with an old Cannibal Corpse style mosh rhythm, then it too falls in line with the rapid onslaught. Only the dull, forgettable "Instrumental" and the choppy closing tracks "Sepulchral Entity" and "Sinstorm" stop for a last, dying gasp, returning to the hints of death and doom found in the first song, but the last offers yet another explosion after the bridge.

I can't cite Perpetual Decay for being as unique as its slower moving, discordant and foul smelling follow-up, but there are hints here or there of the future progression, encapsulated in the thrust of the writhing mayhem. The performances are praiseworthy, the nostalgia clearly evoked, and so rarely have I heard such an interesting nexus of a band's influences. If you had told me I would be listening to a hybrid of Mental Funeral, The Bleeding, Testimony of the Ancients, Effigy of the Forgotten, Leprosy and Altars of Madness back in the early to mid 90s, I would have creamed my shorts so hard they would have leaked crimson. Yet here it lies, from fucking Norway in the 21st century...

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Norway's Obliteration charged onto the scene back in 2001, but only within the last three years have they really started to make a name for themselves. On this first full-length, the band flirts with a variety of influences from death metal's old school, veering back and forth between rapid-fire blasting mayhem, aggressive thrash and lurching Autopsy-ish groove. While there are more than a few enjoyable riffs to be found on Perpetual Decay, the band wasn't quite ready to settle on a particular style and develop it into something unique and thoroughly enjoyable. Regardless, this album is an above-average slice of death metal.

The main riffing style employed on this release is a hyperactive tremolo attack that sometimes lands on a distinctly thrashy guitar line. This style is most obviously influenced by early Morbid Angel, which is fine and all if a bit predictable. Most of these tremolo lines fail to really captivate, but the band really shines during the thrashy bits ("Repent" in particular being an excellent example of full-speed thrash of a more Teutonic persuasion). The same song also contains a dive-bomb laden solo that would make Kerry King proud, which sort of emphasizes the general lack of lead lines and solos throughout the album. Perplexing, since axeman Arlid Torp proves himself more than capable of delivering some awesome solos. The guitar tone employed on Perpetual Decay is a nice, gritty thrash tone, without a lot of bells and whistles but it's more than adequate for this brand of death metal. The bass also has a nice, throaty presence that doesn't compete at all with the bass drums and adds an extra bit of snarl to the riffing.

Drummer Kristian Valbo can blast with the best of them, but he really grabs my attention when he's not beating his snare like it owes him money. This guy really knows how to play a brutal fill and the toms have a great weight to them. Some of the fills in the title track especially are a joy to listen to. I just wish he wasn't quite so blast-happy in the more Morbid Angel influenced sections as those parts really restrict his fairly freewheeling style. The drum performance is really a highlight of this album.

On the flipside, Sindre Solem's vocals are one of my least favorite things about Perpetual Decay. He employs a fairly low growl, but I get the constant impression that his natural growling range is a higher, more Martin Van Drunen sort of strained approach but that he's forcing his growls lower to accomodate the brutal riffing. It's nothing short of unnatural sounding and is a bit distracting. Fortunately, he would use a more natural approach on the band's superior follow-up, but that doesn't help proceedings here.

One of the most frustrating aspects of this debut album is the uneven songwriting. The whole middle section of the album ("Repent" through "Guts and Glory") contains the album's strongest tracks, while the beginning and end are loaded with the less thrashy and less memorable songs with generally weaker riffs. These songs are far from being unenjoyable ("Sepulchural Entity" has a great thrash break in the middle) but mixing up the tracklisting would have given the effect of hiding the lesser songs among the great ones. Slow-motion album closer "Sinstorm" has a lot of potential but the main riff just isn't all that great and the song sort of plods along. The drums remain fun to listen to, at least, even when the song shifts gears into a faster riff sort of typical of the album's less-interesting songs.

This is worth listening to if only for the great run of songs through the middle and the consistently awesome drumming. You'll probably like it a good deal more than I do if you're so in love with Altars of Madness that you instantly adore anything that takes a lot of influences from that album. For those of you who, like me, like more straightforward aggression and heaviness in your death metal, this album might be worth your time but I direct you first to the band's excellent followup, Nekropsalms.