Insidious Decrepancy is a one-man Brutal Death Metal act signed to Brutal Bands. This act was formed back in 2000 by Shawn Whitaker, who is known for his time in Viral Load, Braced for Nails, and a number of other bands. This solo project has seen two previous full-lengths and a DVD released, with Extirpating Omniscient Certitude being the third full-length offering. It's a musically strong album, but there are some hang ups that do hold it back from being a highly impressive release.
First of all, this album has a great production quality to it, and though the music doesn't give off an atmosphere of brutality at times, the guitars are still heavy and can often still feel a little crushing on the listener, but not much. The vocals are a typical low gutteral approach, but there are inward gutterals, the kind that sound like pig squeels, that are floating around throughout the release. Luckily they are not abused throughout the album, and seem to just kick in more at certain spots that it would fit in at only. The only downfall to all of this is the drumming, which is programmed. While this wouldn't necessarly be an issue, not only can you obviously tell it's from a drum machine, on the song "Slighting Salvation", it goes into some kind of ethnic dance beat due to the sound the drums give off. Also, some of the sections in that song, as well as others, that have silent moments that rely on the drums to fill a gap with symbols or snares, as a bridge or otherwise, sound horrible. "Once Revered" is the perfect example of this, as the drums happen during moments like that, and at one point even come off as sounding a bit disco.
Other then the drumming clearly not sounding human, and once in a while sounding completely off from the overall intensity and brutality that is aimed for with the music, Extirpating Omniscient Certitude is a strong Brutal Death Metal album. There are plenty of great tracks that offer up a variety of musical approaches, mostly in the speed of the song, and something more then one change up in the song in the first place. There's also a decent amount of variety in the vocals, and they always seem to fit whatever the song calls for. For the most part, it's just a general gutteral style with a good amount of distortion on it, that also makes the vocals muddy and hard to understand, while sometimes the distortion is not present and makes the gutterals sound clear. Of course, you then also have the really deep inward gutterals which seem to be used more during some of the slower segments of songs. This adds extra variety to the mix, and really aids the album and makes up for the clearly inhuman drumming.
Extirpating Omniscient Certitude is composed of eight tracks total, just falling short of hitting a thirty minute time span. For those who look for quality over quantity, then this is something for them to take notice of. While the album doesn't really put it's best foot forward with "Contemptuous Inception", which actually sounds a little hollow, generic at times, and has drumming that simply doesn't fit the Brutal Death Metal feel at all, the rest of the release has plenty of strong tracks that are worth the time to check out. "Tribulation" is just a fast onslaught on the listener with deep vocals that work so well with the atmosphere of the song, giving it a more haunting feel then anything else, which is what makes this track really stand out. Another stand out track on this release is "Once Revered" also has a slower pace to it like "Derided Reticence", but it's just not quite the same thing, as it bring a very intimidating atmosphere there a brutal one.
If it weren't for the odd drumming, Extirpating Omniscient Certitude would have been a very strong release from this one man project. While the overall intensity in many of the songs makes up for it, there are just some times where the music sounds hollow due to the unrealistic drumming, and it really does take a toll on the album during some tracks, but not necessarily enough to keep you away from the album, but more like giving the impression that it would be a great album had things been a little different during the recording process. Insidious Decrepancy have put out another worthwhile release, and if you happen upon it somewhere along the lines, it's worth checking out for some good Brutal Death Metal.
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