Fruit of the Poisoned Tree

I miss Spawn of Possession. They were one of technical death metal's finest bands, one that released three monumental albums, each one better than the last before vanishing off into the void, and they haven't been seen since. Truly a tragic story; one that, if the band never gets back together, will weigh heavy on the hearts of tech fans around the world that we never got to see such a band continue to flourish. Thankfully, a lot of bands take a lot of inspiration from their greatness and have tried to mimic what a possible fourth album would sound like. Virulent Depravity, a new band on the block, tested those waters with their debut record "Fruit of the Poisoned Tree" back in 2017, and you know what, they did a pretty good job.

"Fruit of the Poisoned Tree" is some of the most chaotic, manic fucking technical death metal I have ever heard. The band's sound, like their forefathers Spawn of Possession, comes mainly from the frantic riff work and explosive leads that bind everything together. It's devilishly fast in every aspect and rarely slows down for a breather. Every song is a clusterfuck of spiraling riffs, crunched against one another as the music spastically switches from riff to solo, riff to solo, riff to solo, held down by tight (and also very fast) drumming and boring, but serviceable vocals.

At first listen, it just seems like more of an amalgamation of notes rather than complete songs, but after a handful of listens, it begins to blossom and show its true colors. The songs seemingly have no direction in the beginning, but structures slowly begin to form over time and the songs actually begin to sound like, well… songs. The guitar work is approached in the same way as Spawn of Possession, a method I like to call "play that riff again, but don't play that riff again." It seems every single time a certain riff is played, minute details are added to it or detracted from it each time to make it slightly different. For that reason, it's pretty hectic and hard to get into at first. Alas, it's grown on me and I appreciate the album a lot more than I initially did.

As for the specific songs themselves, I feel Virulent Depravity are at their best when they have longer songs to work with. The latter three tracks are filled with a multitude of interesting parts, whereas the two sub-4 minute songs are pretty forgettable and just run of the mill tech death. The longest track, "Only Human" is one of the best tracks on the album and probably the most straightforward song on the album, as it gives a lot of breathing room to the listener while still punishing them with absolutely massive riffs when it gets the chance to. There's also a ton, and I mean a ton of interesting leads on this album; the record is pretty much carried by its guitar work. The bass gets one or two moments to shine but really doesn't offer much to the experience.

There isn't much more to say about the record. It's technical death metal, alright; it's extremely fast, bizarrely structured and, well… technical. See how that works? Anyway, fans of the genre will probably feel at home when they throw this record on, even if it does take a listen or two to start to finally grasp. I'm impressed, but not completely blown away. There's still a lot of parts where it's just a wall of notes, and some songs do offer next to nothing. That being said, I do really look forward to what this band has to offer next. This is, after all, just a debut; there's a lot more work to be done before this band reaches legendary status, but with a debut like this one, I'd say they're closer to releasing a monumental album than we expect. Also, Malcolm Pugh is a fucking legend.

FFO: Spawn of Possession, Inferi, First Fragment
Favorite track: Your Demise
Final score: 7/10

Right out of the gate, Fruit of the Poisoned Tree shows it's got something different to offer. The production is fairly unpolished - by the standards of their contemporaries - and the riffs are a twisted mass of large, dissonant jumps over the fretboard, somewhere between Anata and Demilich. It seldom relents in throwing unexpected turns at the listener, managing to be even more unpredictable than those bands.

These riffs are so busy. No, that's an understatement. These riffs are like a Rube Goldberg machine inside a room, on a rollercoast, on LSD. They snake ceaselessly, in the most erratic way, harmonies come and go in splashes of sonic color, rhythmic ideas are so nuanced that Stephen Hawking couldn't formulate appropriate time signatures for them.

The tonality is highly chromatic. If not for the fast pace, and death metal vocals, you'd really question is this music sad? Is it happy? It it laughing, crying or baffled? Listening to this music requires some effort. Casually listening to this is just not going to occur to most people. There's no doubt about it – if you don't like technical; I mean, highly, highly technical music, you will not enjoy this album.

One way this album reminds me of the great Anata is very long phrasing. That is to say, the riff/motif/idea is introduced and where it's customary to simply repeat a riff after a measure or two, Virulent Depravity instead presents you with a huge riff that lasts for many measures, sometimes not bothering to repeat it and opting instead to simply move on to a new idea, theme or take on the same riff. Other times, they might repeat it with some harmonic ideas done differently, or with totally different rhythms. Add to this odd meter, and ever-changing time signatures, bizarre, ugly tonal shifts and lead harmonies; what you end up with is a pretty remarkable album.

Crikey! we have a bass sighting. Yes, and it squirms around as whimsically as the guitar. It can more often than not be clearly heard. Sometimes it is playing a separate part, doing it's own thing, sometimes it follows the guitar, but it always adds it's beefy metallic tone. And this is the first album I've reviewed in a very long time where this was the case, at least where the bass this far forward in the music.

This album contains blast/skank beats, a very expressive, dynamic set of growls and I-just-stepped-on-a-Lego screams, and the requisite aggression of death metal, but man if you take that away, I would find it difficult to describe what the music really is. Defining the riffs themselves in any tangible way is kind of elusive, they're just so weird. Stylistically anything from funk, to neo-classical to jazz can be the real “core” of the feel of the riffs at any one moment (the neo-classical does come out in the solos). This is how you know a band is really putting forth the effort – after stripping away all the stuff layered over top, like complex harmonies and rhythms, you still can't nail down what it is. This is why I passed on the usual “This is technical death metal with a core of thrash”, or Swedish death metal, or whatever. Because I just can't adequately say. The riffs are just too abstract to pin down in that way. The closest bands to this are Spawn of Possession, Anata and Demilich – and that will do little I think to accurately portray their sound – but that is some damn good company to be in. There are also glimpses of early Cryptopsy, and even Spastic Ink.

The two things this band shares with Spawn of Possession are these evil leads and solos – astutely, the one time this band does kind of reel in the craziness is during a solo – and the use of harmonies dancing around over a lead riff. This is a good example of how you have to put effort into listening to this, as you're literally listening to multiple ideas at once, melodies on top of melodies, with different rhythmic subdivisions. This stuff is rare. This advanced level of musicality cannot be approached by most musicians.

I recently said The Zenith Passage's Solipsist displayed the most advanced technical faculty I've heard in a long time, and even though I might enjoy the song writing more on that album, this is undoubtedly more complex. It's dizzying.

The track Only Human has a somber jazz intro, moving into something Anata-like, with a set of dark, grotesque riffs, but still wondering into moments of consonant, melodic leads. It breaks in the midpoint to give way to an Animals as Leaders type of riff but without the disingenuous quality that band can have. The leads at times have this bitter-sweet feel over these torrential dark riffs and beastly drumming. There is an eerie outro, that again reminds me of Spawn of Possession. This is strangely, probably the most straightforward song on the album, and the only one with clear jazz elements.

Mechanical Defilement is my standout track; with these long, elaborate guitar lines that never seem to end, and just dance this chaotic dance in the most intense, enthralling way. It is just a mind-blowing display of guitar playing and clever, adept song writing.

I can't immediately identify any glaring flaws in this album. They've cleared every hurdle that a high-level technical/progressive death metal album needs. Legitimately technical: big check. Do something unique: check. No long, boring interludes: check. Spare me the masturbatory/esoteric lyrics: check. No muddy, garbage or overly sterile, synthetic production: check. Keep my interest throughout: check

If I were to be nit-picky - I would say the closing track Crushed by Futuristic Filth gets a little wanky and doesn't carry all the unique traits of the rest of the album through. And even though I love the insane technicality, the song writing and memorability, whether because of, or in spite of the technicality - is simply not as strong as the likes of Anata or Descravity.

I'm greatly impressed with this album – which like Zenith Passage's Solipsist, is a debut album, and again shows an astronomical level of musicianship. I'm running out of superlatives to throw at it now. No question, this album is not going to be most people's cup of tea, but if you like extremely technical or unique metal, I give this the highest recommendation.

Formed just in 2015, Tennessee-based technical death metal newcomers Virulent Depravity have sought to bring their seasoned experience and whirlwind technical prowess that makes for such a devastating turn in the genre already saturated with efforts. Loaded with a stellar group of guest musicians to round out their impressive sound, the power-trio prepares its full-length debut April 7, 2017 on The Artisan Era.

Bringing their true intentions out early on, this here is a rather strong and blistering account of their style which makes for a truly dynamic and charging offering. This is mainly due to building a strong base of technically-challenging guitar-work full of ferocious speed-drenched patterns shifting effortlessly from thrashing progressive chords to dive-bombing rhythms and jangly lead-work that all produce a veritable soundscape fully capable of utilizing these strong rhythms. It’s all balanced out by the addition of furious blastbeats and highly technical drumming alongside spindly bass-lines to provide a finely-tuned, frantic blast of challenging material at complex speeds which generates this likably intense nature for the vast majority of the tracks. With all that already high-end material featured here, there’s room for more fun in the more epic tracks to engage in far more varied and unique approaches, from long-winded introspective intros to more relaxed tempos in order to offset a more melodic tone with more pronounced and obvious down-tempo sections to allow for swirling, sprawling leads and far more adventurous patterns that truly offer a more fleshed-out sound than the relentless blasting. They do, however, bring out the only real flaw in the album with its overlong and somewhat bloated second-half which seems to drag with these monsters all placed there to really beef up the record just before closing which has the distinction of making it seem to take forever to play through on its own. It’s not enough to derail the rest of the music but it is a somewhat disappointing effort considering how good it worked beforehand.

While it doesn’t really seem to need to be as long and bloated as it feels, the fact that the vast majority of the music otherwise manages to feature plenty of overwhelmingly enjoyable elements does lift this one up enough to give this a lot of appeal for any fan of technical death metal or fans of the individuals’ other bands.