Echoes of Depravity

California-based Parasitic Ejaculation debuted 2 years ago with their full-length album Rationing the Sacred Human Remains but not before putting out an EP and a couple of demos. This time around, the groovy 4-piece are back with an even longer LP demonstrating some of the band's catchiest material with audible bass guitar.

The band's instance of writing music in such a groovy fixation was demonstrated in their earliest recordings. Parasitic Ejaculation aren't just a slam band that do what everybody in the genre has done i.e. every band that has ripped off Devourment in the past 15 years. Parasitic Ejaculation put such a groove oriented fix on their music to where it's almost... original? No that can't be. Slam that has originality? Well I guess Parasitic aren't the first on the scene to really do things their own way while bringing out some solid slammage. I mean we always had Ezophagothomia and their Tool-esque song lengths and progressive tendency before expanding upon some Suffocation worship years later. Plus let's not forget Begging for Incest and their sick blend of slam death metal with deathcore influences. And that's just it, Parasitic Ejaculation actually has a huge accessible feel to their music for deathcore fans and I don't mean that in the sense that they play breakdowns or have t-shirts with edgy lyrics on them. The fact that their music has such a diverse material-wise atmosphere makes it more listenable than say... Cephalotripsy where their entire album sounds like one song over and over.

Personally I love deathcore for a number of reasons as well as slam - due to the fact that slam is also music with a breakdown-based writing style - it has easily recruited me as a fan through these recent years. Anyways, it's time to take an in-depth look at Echoes of Depravity... so here we go.

Substance-wise we're still getting the same stuff we heard on Rationing the Sacred Human Remains, it's still groove-flavored slam with an abundance on pinch harmonics and inhale vocals, now with some dual tracking to give it that brutaller sound in the vocal factor. Jonathan Neel's performance on this album is probably his best yet. As the album opens up with the sounds of him uttering 'ORRRR-REE-ORRR-OHHH-REEEEEEEE" on the record's opening track "Corporeal Nightmares" you can already tell how well this thing is gonna smash your brains before proceeding to show off how well the group have experimented with some guitar ideas and now the instance on using some sweet subdrops during those ultra slammy sections.

Some of the lyrics prove to be humorous but very true, the lyrical content of this album goes a little further than exclusively sticking to gore or the raping of corpses (traditional death metal topics) but rather focusing on morality and evil with a humorous touch included. Parasitic really aren't afraid to make some lyrical shots to the haters either. Looking at an excerpt of one of my favorite lines on the album straight from the booklet I have here; "Who are you to say what is and isn't true? You're just a nerd with a fedora and a keyboard"; from the track "Embodiment of Evil" - which seems to be their anti-IMN anthem. Or the fun-filled lyrics in another track; "I want to feel enlightened/ let this substance fuel my only escape. With the drug in my head/ life transforms into a perverted shape." Have to just wholeheartedly say that for a genre that slam death metal is and with how shallow the lyrical concept is of the entire thing ever since it's existed (with yet even some bands literally not even using lyrics), Parasitic Ejaculation really do know how to write a couple lines with a clever concept that do stick in your head. Have to just give major praise to the lyrical factor here. Their funny moments are a breeze as well.

Now it's time to look at one thing I really wanted to review this album for, one of the main reasons why I'm ever here right now making comments about this record is one thing I kind of am having a love-hate feeling for and that is the bass guitar. It's audible now!... very audible........
TOO audible...............
Now I love the fact that you can hear the bass guitar as I am a bass player myself, but the fact that the basslines are just thin and it's mainly just the flickers of the strings that peak through the music than the actual thickness of the notes themselves is sort of an issue for me, and in some ways this drives me nuts due to the fact that you hear this through the whole fucking album. It even overpowers the guitar, taking your focus off the slams and more of how the bass guitar is following the slams but it just so happens that this clicky sound generated by bass strings is piled on top of the guitar parts which I am overall not too fond of.

If I could hear the bass notes themselves rather than just the snapping sounds of bass strings then I would have let this slide better, either that or the producer could have done the easy thing and just turn the damn guitar up so I can enjoy these riff. Most of the times when I hear this album, I find the inside of my mind narrating the words "Please bass guitar just keep it down, I put this album on to enjoy some slams so let me enjoy my freaking slams." Maybe I might be exaggerating this because it's still morning right now as I write this review and have yet to have my coffee, but I do mean it when I say something should have been done with this bass guitar. Overall the bass performance is fine and I can say that because I can hear it more clearly than even the guitar on this release. But please, don't make the bass notes interrupt the guitar riffs next time, Mr. Producer.

Now as for drumming, Donovan Dettle has improved. The time spent playing shows and rehearsing between this album and 2013's Rationing the Sacred Human Remains surely has put some great new skills into his work behind the kit. This dude really knows how to write a blast beat and I absolutely love his snare tone, not too clean and not too filthy. Just rests in the background of the record so when those gravity blasts come in they actually don't sound like he's unleashing a paintball gun onto his snare (which a lot death metal of bands seem to have an issue with avoiding). Not a bad record at all, great vocal performance, great bass performance and great vocal performance. Good guitar performance too, although it would have been nice if I could put my focus on it a little more without having to deal with the sounds of snapping bass guitar strings over it.

Pick this album up if you're absolutely nuts for slam death or anything groove oriented. Heck, I bet even Six Feet Under fans could jam Echoes of Depravity. I've been enjoying this record since it came out and I have to admit it's a really solid listen, absolutely jamable on most occasions even when you're not looking for the most brutal thing in the world either because the catchiness of the grooves really just stick with you on a number of occasions or emotions you're feeling throughout your day. For death metal, I won't say Parasitic Ejaculation have totally reinvented the wheel, but for a slam album this thing is sick. Totally worth the buy. No doubt about that. Play this record on your way to the beach, on a rainy day, after a frustrating day at work or on a relaxing day off. It's simply brutal music that is somehow flexible to almost any mood.

Reviewer track picks: "Visceral Transcendence", "Splitting Abhorrent Flesh". "Nauseating Convergence of Seepage" and "Subject to Depraved Torment"