Tag Archive: Decrepit Birth

Calm Hatchery – Sacrilege of Humanity

Filed Under: Reviews

Nov.11, 2010

Calm Hatchery

Sacrilege of Humanity

01. Rattlesnake Dream
02. Sea of Truth
03. Messerschmitt
04. We Are the Universe
05. Mirror Giants
06. Hymn of the Forgotten
07. Them
08. Lost in the Sands
09. Those Who Were
10. Shine for the Chosen One
11. The Blood of Stalingrad
12. Maerd Sekanselttar

[Selfmade God | 12/20/10]

As pretentious as it sounds, I rarely get sent music that I haven’t heard before. At the very least, a band’s name is familiar, but this was not the case upon receiving an email from Selfmade God Records promoting Calm Hatchery, a technical death metal outfit from the underrated Poland, and their new album. I generally tend to avoid the unknown death metal because there’s always something wrong with it (generic, basement-quality production and so on), but my itching for some new tech death after digesting Decrepit Birth‘s latest effort ad infinitum took over. They say curiosity killed the cat, but I can say with utmost certainty that this is not always true because Sacrilege of Humanity is a great release.

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Tags: calm hatchery, Death, Decrepit Birth, Neaera, nile

Last Quarter Of The Year…

Filed Under: Editorials, Uncategorized

Oct.21, 2010

… so what’s on everyone’s favorites for this year so far? We’re almost at November I figured I could do with some new music that could modify my list (and maybe yours too). I’m most definitely missing a few gems. Throw your top 5 in the comments (or more if you want) and let’s get some recommendations going!

In no order, mine is shaping up to be:

The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza – Danza III: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Decrepit Birth – Polarity

Solution .45 – For Aeon’s Past

The Absence – Enemy Unbound

The 25th Hour - Monsters

Special mention to Piotrek Gruszka – Cosmogenesis. If that album gets stuck any more in my head I can’t imagine it not making my final list.

Let’s see what you guys got!

-MK

Tags: danza, Decrepit Birth, Piotrek Gruszka, solution .45, The 25th Hour, The Absence

Got Any Questions For Decrepit Birth?

Filed Under: Interviews, Tours and Rumors of Tours

Oct.20, 2010

So here in a few weeks I’m going to head over to Raleigh to see the awesome Decibel Defiance Tour. As if just watching all the awesome bands perform wasn’t going to be amazing enough, I’m also going to have the opportunity to do a video interview with Decrepit Birth! I already have some questions for the band, but it would be great if you guys could help me out and leave some comments with any question ideas you might have! So yeah, do it.

Tags: Decrepit Birth, Fleshgod Apocalypse, interview, Suffocation, The Faceless, Through The Eyes Of The Dead, tour

A New Album From The Faceless Is Now In Sight

Filed Under: General News, Upcoming releases

Oct.14, 2010

Tech death can be a bit of a hit and miss genre. You have bands like Gorod and Decrepit Birth who know how to write technical death metal that actually has musical merit. And then you have bands like Brain Drill that are pretty much nonstop wank. Yeah, I get it. You can play guitar… but can you write songs?

The Faceless are an extremely talented and progressive-minded band that are at the forefront of this Sumeriancore movement, even after dropping most of what made them -core in the first place. Their first album, Akeldama, was one of my reasons why deathcore isn’t total shit and Planetary Duality, their sophomore effort, saw a jump to full-fledged proggy tech death that was praised by critics and fans alike. Needless to say, not only can The Faceless play their instruments, they can also write some fucking songs, which is exactly what they’re up to right now, The PRP reports.

Here’s what producer and guitarist Michael Keene had to say about the upcoming album:

“After the Summer Slaughter tour wrapped up, we were left with a very refreshing sense of energy and change. It was great to get out and play such killer shows with all of those talented bands and the experience has super charged the excitement of writing new material and pushing ourselves to new musical boundaries as a group and individual musicians/performers.

The writing process for our upcoming third record is in full swing and it’s a very exciting, fulfilling musical journey so far. We’ll be debuting a new song on our upcoming tour with Suffocation, which I feel is a great example of the direction in which the new material is headed. Expect a very progressive and vibey record, that maintains the high-energy that you would expect of THE FACELESS and even more thought provoking lyrical content than ever before.

We’ll be hitting the road in just a few days to wrap-up the touring cycle for Planetary Duality. We’ll be locked up in my recording studio in Los Angeles once we get home. You can expect lots of studio updates and blogs along the way. This will be the last tour we’ll be doing until we complete the recording of our new record. With that said, we want to make this a special tour for fans who may have seen us on the Summer Slaughter tour. Therefore, we’ll be playing more old songs than usual and debuting a brand new song for you! Come and meet us at a merch table and we hope to see you all soon.”

tl;dr: You lucky fucks who can make it out to the Suffocation tour ( WHICH STARTS TODAY!) will be getting the first taste of new The Faceless music.

The Faceless are easily one of my favorite bands and they put on an excellent show this year at Summer Slaughter. It feels much longer than two years since Planetary Duality came out. At any rate, it’s about time! Hopefully they can continue the trend and top their last one!

After the jump, Suffocation (w/ The Faceless, Decrepit Birth, Through The Eyes Of The Dead, Fleshgod Apocalypse) tour dates, just in case you missed it the first time.

- JR

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Tags: Brain Drill, Decrepit Birth, Fleshgod Apocalypse, gorod, Suffocation, The Faceless, Through The Eyes Of The Dead

Pointless Rambling Filler Content: General Album Gripes

Filed Under: Editorials

Oct.01, 2010

This is my response to all the bands about to be mentioned

As a disclaimer, I intend no disrespect. In fact, this whole article is tongue-in-cheek so don’t take it offensively/seriously in any way, shape or form. I understand the effort, time and creativity it takes to make albums and that it’s a “career” (so to speak) that few can do successfully, especially with the lack of profits involved and the gratuitous amount of resources required. It’s utter passion that drives people to make good music and I have the utmost respect for these people. Again, the title speaks for itself. Plus, Alkahest egged me on a while ago to write something like this.

That being said, is anyone irritated, to any degree, with bands who take forever to release albums? Take a look at Wintersun and Necrophagist. These bands have albums that still aren’t out yet they’ve been in the works for such a long time. Though rushing albums isn’t a good idea (see Emmure), as the longer you take (generally) the better the quality of the end result, but as a personal gripe I’m always craving new music from bands that I love. It’s been at least 6 years since Necrophagist released an album and I don’t even want to know how long Wintersun will take with an album title like Time. That has to be a deliberate, trolling pun.

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SUFFOCATION! THE FACELESS! DECREPIT BIRTH! TTEOTD! FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE!

Filed Under: Tours and Rumors of Tours

Sep.02, 2010

It’s a death metaller’s delight hitting up North America! The Suffocation headlining tour finally has dates.

Check em’

10/15 Worcester, MA @ The Palladium (Rock and Shock)
10/16 New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
10/17 Quebec City, QC @ Imperial Theater
10/18 Montreal, QC @ Foufounes
10/19 Jonquiere, QC @ Place Nikitoutagan
10/20 Toronto, ON @ Opera House
10/21 Poughkeepsie, NY @ The Chance
10/22 Detroit, MI @ Harpos
10/23 Chicago, IL @ Clearwater Theatre
10/24 St. Paul, MN @ Station 4
10/25 Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
10/27 Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
10/28 Salt Lake City, UT @ TBA
10/29 Las Vegas, NV @ The Farm
10/30 Pomona, CA @ The Glasshouse
10/31 Los Angeles, CA @ The Whisky
11/1 Phoenix, AZ @ The Clubhouse
11/2 Albuquerque, NM @ Fusion Factory
11/3 Amarillo, TX @ Club Khaos
11/4 Tulsa, OK @ Marquee Theatre
11/5 Austin, TX @ Emo’s
11/6 Ft. Worth, TX @ Ridglea Theatre
11/8 Tampa, FL @ Brass Mug
11/9 Jacksonville, FL @ The Pit
11/10 Raleigh, NC @ Volume 11
11/11 Philadelphia, PA @ Polaris
11/12 Springfield, VA @ Jaxx
11/13 Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock

This is a strong tour that is sure to please. I know I say this a lot (hell, I just said it an hour ago), but if you can make it, you need to go see a show. They aren’t coming near me (nor Mitch or Michael), so take advantage, guys! Report back and tell us how amazing it was.

- JR

Tags: Decrepit Birth, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Suffocation, The Faceless, Through The Eyes Of The Dead

Things That Are Fucking Metal: Poverty & Homelessness

Filed Under: Editorials, Things That Are Fucking Metal

Aug.26, 2010

The biting bi-weekly bible on all things metal is back, baby. I shouldn’t have to tell you that alliteration is metal; The Number Of The Blog builds their whole week around it. No, this week’s topic is on poverty. Despite the fact that money is said to be the root of all evil (and evil being a fairly metal concept), money has everything to do with awesome and nothing to do with metal. To put it simply:

MONEY = AWESOME

METAL = AWESOME

MONEY =/= METAL

Don’t give me that look. It’s called being mutually exclusive, dipshit. Was your ACT score a whopping 7? Fuck off. No, here’s the theory behind this money/metal mathematical mix-up (more alliteration, bitches):

People are attracted to awesome things. This is Theoretical Awesomeness Gravity at work, also known as TAG. This may or may not be where the body spray got its name.
Things with a large mass of awesome (such as a lot of money and music) have great gravitational pull. The more awesome something is, the more gravity it has. Metal is clearly the most awesome genre of music, and being the heaviest genre, it has more mass. This is making so much sense, it’s blowing even MY mind.
When an assortment of smaller awesome things are combined with a large awesome thing, you get a Solar System of Success. More alliteration. Fuck me, I’m awesome.
When two very large awesome things get too close, they pull into eachother, creating a clusterfuck of debris and bullshit that could reach critical mass and implode upon itself. Sure, you could sift through the rubble to find some gems, but most of the larger chunks of awesome have been incinerated. Too much of a good thing is bad for you.
Therefore, when you get money too close to metal, they pull into eachother and collide, effectively ruining everyone’s good time.

Make sense now? Don’t be silly, of course it does. I shouldn’t have to tell you why a rich man making metal is bad news. What are they going to write about? Stock portfolios? Mortgages? There’s the door to my office. Get the fuck out. The metal will be boring and uninspired, with no artistic strive other than for financial gain. That’s not metal at all, man.

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Tags: Bill Robinson, Decrepit Birth, kiss, Metallica

Summer Slaughter Tour: 08/06/10 – Cincinnati, Ohio

Filed Under: Live, Reviews, Tours and Rumors of Tours

Aug.09, 2010

I don’t get to go to metal shows very often, so I have to pick and choose wisely. It seemed to me that Summer Slaughter’s stop fell on a Friday within a 4 hour distance and had arguably the best lineup, so that’s what I set my sights on. I was ready to have a good time, and all in all, I did.

However, things started off in the shitter. I was planning on and looking forward to interviewing The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk, but upon arriving at the box office I was turned away. Apparently, the guy at the ticket booth was not given any names under The Red Chord’s list, leaving me a bit confused, annoyed, and somewhat embarrassed. Seeing my genuine look of confusion, he offered to go and talk to the band and see what was up while I waited. After a few minutes had passed, he came back to tell me that there was too much going on backstage to get a hold of anyone and that it would be a good 20 minutes before he could reach anyone. I then noticed that people were being let in, so I said “I guess I’ll just buy a ticket and come back later,” and joined my friend (who had never heard of most of the bands on the bill) in line. Sadly, the shit didn’t stop there. Apparently it had hit the fan and sprayed all over the stage.

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Tags: All Shall Perish, Animals As Leaders, Carnifex, Cephalic Carnage, Conducting From The Grave, Decapitated, Decrepit Birth, In Flames, Sum-41, Summer Slaughter Tour, The Faceless, The Red Chord, Veil of Maya, Vital Remains

This Week In Heavy [Week of July 27th]

Filed Under: This Week In Heavy

Jul.26, 2010

NEW RELEASES GOGOGOGOGOGO

36 Crazyfists – Collisions And Castaways (Ferret Music)
Angels Of Babylon – Kingdom Of Evil (Burnhill Union)
Avenged Sevenfold – Nightmare (Reprise)
The Body – All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood (At A Loss)
Brutal Truth – No Need To Control [Re-Release] (Earache)
Cruel Hand – Lock & Key (Bridge Nine)
Decrepit Birth – Polarity (Nuclear Blast)
Insidious Disease – Shadowcast (Century Media)
Invasion – Orchestrated Kill Maneuver (Rotting Corpse)
Iron Thrones – The Wretched Sun
King James – The Fall [Re-Release] (Retroactive)
Life Of Agony – 20 Years Strong: River Runs Red – Live In Brussels (CD/DVD) (I Scream)
Proghma-C – Bar-do Travel (Armoury)
Revamp – Revamp (Nuclear Blast)
Sodom – Lords Of Depravity II [DVD] (SPV)
Various Artists – 20 Years Of Century Media: 2001-2005 (Century Media)

Not a whole lot going on, but there’s some gems in there, such as Decrepit Birth and IRON THRONES ! Have a good week, guys!

- JR

Tags: Decrepit Birth, Iron Thrones

Decrepit Birth – Polarity

Filed Under: Reviews

Jul.14, 2010

Decrepit Birth

Polarity

01. (A Departure of the Sun) Ignite the Tesla Coil
02. Metatron
03. Resonance
04. Polarity
05. Solar Impulse
06. Mirroring Dimensions
07. A Brief Odyssey in Time
08. The Quickening of Time
09. Sea of Memories
10. Symbiosis
11. Darkness Embrace

If there’s one person who has no problem with eating their own words, it’s me. What drew me to Decrepit Birth were their complex lead passages and relentless assault of damn good death metal. Despite “Metatron” finding its way onto the internet and living up to this standard, though lacking a lot of standout leads, I wasn’t fully convinced Polarity could top Diminishing Between Worlds after having the displeasure of hearing the first song on the album. After this 38 minute journey, I can say with full confidence that Polarity is Decrepit Birth‘s magnum opus.

One thing that Diminishing Between Worlds lacked was diversity. The style was great, but the execution was too true to itself and everything seemed to follow a formula of blazing riffs that transition to some lead passage. Repeat ad infinitum. Still present, Polarity manages to make it much more inviting by adding synths, better guitar techniques and a bigger emphasis on its mystical/ritualistic atmosphere. Less pinch harmonics and a lot more sweeping? Hell yes. The soundscape as a whole is a lot deeper because of this. In the foreground, though, there’s a musical rollercoaster from a qualitative perspective. “Sea of Memories” is by far the best song Decrepit Birth have ever written (no hyperbole) consisting of extremely memorable lead guitar, underlying “ahh” synths and stringing together coherently in the grand scheme of things. I’d even go as far to say it’s one of the most coherent technical death metal songs in a long time. After all, there are few tech death songs that actually manage to develop. But things aren’t always this good: some of the leads and solos seem to jump sporadically and go nuts with no purpose. Coupled with the hit-everything-as-fast-and-as-much-as-you-can drumming, things do tend to get a bit silly, but it’s tech death so I can overlook it.

The replay value of Diminishing Between Worlds lied within its fantastic leads and how they were placed. There was never too many or too little. It was an awesome balance of assault and melody that surprisingly carries on to Polarity. With Bill’s low vocals coming in at the right time, things couldn’t be better. He lets the angular guitar shine when it should and unleashes his gargantuan vocal attack when the songs get aggressive. The esoteric lyrics are back as well, though being a bit cheesy at times (“I reach out and touch your mind, I reveal the secrets before your eyes”). Nevertheless, the delivery is spot on. It’s a songwriting feat that I wish more bands could execute properly.

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Tags: Decrepit Birth, Polarity, technical death metal