Condemned
Desecrate the Vile ()
Wydane przez Lacerated Enemy RecordsRok wydania Kraj USANapisał Wouter5
This is the first full length for California's Condemned (not to be mistaken with the Seattle and Houston bands of the same name) after their 2005 demo. "Desecrate the Vile" is a typical example of underground death metal with its one-way vomited low pig vocals, buzzy guitar tone and overpowering snare drums. A broad comparison production-wise could be "Supreme Knowledge Domain" era Internal Suffering while musically this feels like an underproduced, underrehearsed and generally underwritten Dying Fetus in their "Bathe In Entrails" era without its interesting grooves, top notch technical skills and characteristic dynamics. The music is mostly midpaced death metal with occasional blast sections to facilitate some variation within the material. Of the 10 tracks present on this album there's only one highlight with closing track 'Amputated Repugnance' which is an 11 minute epic that contains around 9 minutes of tasteful ambient and moody electronics. Despite most of the tracks clocking little over 2 minutes "Desecrate the Vile" still manages to grow stale halfway through. Condemned should go back and listen to some midpaced death metal records of the early and mid '90s to see some stellar examples of how to do this genre justice. Some variation in riffs, vocal lines, drum patterns and the addition of guitar leads wouldn't hurt either. The production really takes down whatever effect this record could have been aiming for. No instrument comes with the needed punch and oomph to really grab the listener by the throat; in fact the production is so dry, lifeless and sterile that Condemned loses whatever little bit of enthusiasm they had when going into the studio is hopelessly lost. Artwork by Pär Olofsson (Mortal Decay, Odious Mortem, Psycroptic) is breathtaking and is possibly one of the only redeeming factors – besides the Suffocation like song titles - this album has. At any cost, avoid!
www.laceratedenemy.com
