ALBUM REVIEW: III – Desecrate The Faith
When it comes to death metal in the US, Houston’s DESECRATE THE FAITH are definitely creating music that explores the genre’s darkest and most visceral extremes. The band’s first two albums, 2014’s Disfigured Arrangement and 2017’s Unholy Infestation, showcase a noxious blend of slam and brutal death metal with a generous dose of melody, giving the Texan quartet a sound that is as catchy as it is belligerent. Their latest album III might just be their most impressive outing to date, with the noticeably tighter and more eclectic approach to songwriting making this a brutal death metal album that stands out from the pack for all the right reasons.
Idle Creatures kicks things off with a groove-laden piece of death metal built around meaty, urgent rhythms, slithering leads and thick, impenetrable gutturals. The blending of slam and brutal death with jarring melodic touches is done really well, not allowing any one part of the sound to dominate and thus making for a powerful opening statement. Blood Scriptures adopts a sharper sound, with blistering hooks and an acidic, higher register of vocal, whilst maintaining the chunky, belligerent undercurrent to make for an acerbic but thoroughly punishing offering with an engrossing, focused sound. Wretched Feast, with its intricate drumming and muscular guitar work, possesses a cavernous, imposing sound, with soaring leads and the rumbling growl of the vocals being the focal points around which the chaotic, energetic parts of this song are centred, creating a whirlwind of intensity interspersed with impressive hooks.
Sadistic Euphoria, with its frenetic, rhythm-centric sound, sees the slam influences within the band’s sound come more prominently to the fore, with polished, catchy leads and sludgy basslines that are interwoven around weightier moments to provide a nice counterpoint to the primitive, forceful core of the track. Upon A Slaughtered Clergy comes across as far more visceral, especially with regards to the vocal deliveries, which are performed with a zeal and aggression that breathes life into the music. The virtuosic musicianship that appeared in the previous song is even more apparent here, showcasing an obvious degree of skill whilst simultaneously injecting lots of exciting flourishes into the music, and not straying into the realms of boring self-indulgence like so many bands with a technical flavour to their sound.
This Butchered Earth – another meaty juggernaut centred around huge, monstrous rhythm sections, bellicose gutturals and tight, chunky hooks – has a big, imposing sound, and even though it doesn’t pack the same sort of punch as many of the songs on the album’s first half, it’s nonetheless a solid slab of death metal. Impulsive Mutilation, with its fast, fluid approach to guitars and bass, makes for a livelier proposition; the energetic riffs and thunderous, unflinching precision of the drums lending a harsher, sharper edge that makes it stick in the listener’s memory. Vile Of Legion ups the ante, retaining the angular style of guitars and applying a rabid pace to them, turning this into easily one of the album’s more feral and cacophonous numbers. The frenzied musicality is coupled with some utterly bestial vocal lines, which only add to the overarching aggression, even when the tempo lurches to a funereal crawl.
The Dead Testament, with its slight disharmony and primitive ferocity, is another great piece of speed-driven, unhinged death metal which incorporates lots of sudden time changes and stylistic shifts that makes it genuinely unpredictable. Rather than sounding crowded, this diverse mix of gnarly guitar work and imaginative rhythms makes for an interesting and memorable affair, running the gauntlet of everything from slam to melodeath with ease. Omnes Ardeat proves to be an extremely dramatic track, pairing a jarring undercurrent with soaring, adventurous leads. Impenetrable, throaty gutturals provide a a counterpoint to the music without intruding too much on things, allowing the music to take centre stage and serving as a great, almost cinematic conclusion to the record.
This album has two incredibly good things going for it; firstly, it’s got the sort of tight, focused musicianship that all the very best brutal death metal records possess, lending this whole record a ferocious and aggressive feel from start to finish. Secondly, there are plenty of impressive flourishes thrown into the mix, from the soaring melodic hooks to the cacophonous barrage of intensity that peppers many of these tracks, which help to make this more than just any other brutal death metal record, adding the band’s own distinct flavour to a style that has a tendency, at points, to feel almost formulaic. III not only signifies a high watermark for DESECRATE THE FAITH creatively, but also shows just how impressive the more brutal and visceral end of death metal can sound when it is done exceptionally well.
Rating: 8/10
III is out now via Comatose Music.
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