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Heavily technical, but not really that brutal.-
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| Origin: Entity |
Technical Death Metal
Nuclear Blast
June 7th, 2011
- Expulsion of Fury - 2:50
- Purgatory - 1:25
- Conceiving Death - 4:00
- Swarm - 2:15
- Saliga - 6:52
- The Descent - 1:31
- Fornever - 2:09
- Committed - 1:56 -
- Banishing Illusion - 1:41
- Consequence of Solution - 7:09
- Evolution of Exctinction - 4:42
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| Links |
| Review Information |
Release length: 36:36
Review posted on June 1st, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 6.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Origin (2000) • Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas (2002) • Echoes of Decimation (2005) • Antithesis (2008) • Entity (2011)
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| Demo(s): |
A Coming Into Existence (1998)
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| Review |
Origin has been growing into a powerful force when it came to Technical and Brutal Death Metal. That fame was solidified in the Metal community with the release of their fourth full=length recording, Antithesis. Sadly, that was the last album to feature vocalist James Lee. Attempting to fill his shoes is Jason Keyser, formerly of Skinless and currently of Mucopus. But, with a new vocalist, there typically comes a new direction in music. Sadly, that is all too true, and practically every metal outlet is brown nosing this release, and by using the word "sadly", one can assume that none of this is a good thing.
Entity is a huge step in the wrong direction, pure and simple. Where Antithesis was brutal, intense, chaotic, rich, and technical, this album is simply the last of those five summarizations. The audio quality of the release is somewhat thick, but nowhere near as rich as it was on the previous album, feeling a little hollow and lighter, keeping the album from being as skull-crushingly intense as it could be. The band is also to blame though, as the music leaves behind much of the brutality for overly technical riffs that don't pack the same bite and come off more like the band is just showing off their technical skills. This becomes apparent with "Expulsion of Fury", which starts off the album, though it offers up a good deal more variety to the music then other songs on the release. The music sounds fairly intense, but it just becomes boring really quickly, lacking any real teeth to it, and a lot of changes to the music that have no real fluid transition to them. All of this becomes one of the main issues throughout the recording.
Almost immediately you will pick up on a lack of brutality to the music. The only rather brutal aspects are the vocals, which have an impressive range but just don't pack the same bite as previous efforts had, and the amount of technical guitars and drums is sickening. Much of Entity just comes off like the band is showing off to their fans, basically saying "Hey! Look how technical we can be!" without giving the rest of what makes their breed of technical Death Metal so great in the first place. Because of this technicality, the transitions and segways absolutely suck. "Expulsion of Fury" simply stops for a second or two, then jumps into a whole other song, if not just hammers right into a different change without much of a segway at all. There's also the issue on "Conceiving Death" where it sounds like th esong just starts a little too early, and that track also has the same kind of transition issues going on for it. On top of that, the band's method of being furious and intense on these songs is to rely on absolutely chaotic technical guitar work against blistering double bass from start to finish with very little shifts in that with some random cymbol crashes. "Swarm" isn't the first to execute this, but it's the first to use it basically start to finish, and while it's definitely impressive as far as the drummer's dexterity goes, it's just boring hearing the same drums over and over with the same kind of spaced out transitional technical Death Metal chords going on in an effort to keep the music goin.
"Saliga" is one of the few moments on the release where the band really shows off it's brutal side. The music isn't quite as technical, though the drumming is effectively the same non-stop double bass performance. The guitar solo on this track is quite impressive as well, and it's only real faults lie from a few transitions in the music when it does become a little more technical then brutal not working out too well, though these moments are actually few and far between, as well as the band using some reverb or echoing feedback from the guitar as part of the technical music during the song. While it works with the rhythm of the song, the lower humming being heard is a little more awkward then anything. This track ends to allow "The Descent" to slowly fade in with it's cold, grim instrumental that is far slower, and definitely a lot less technical. This bass-driven piece becomes a very welcome breath of fresh air to the technical show-off music that was basically every track before it, but on top of that it just feels very out of place, fading out and leaving no real impression other then that it killed a minute and a half, unlike many fo the other less then two minute takes on here that serve a purpose by actually being songs, like "Purgatory" with it's blistering, more technical sound that also borders on having Grindcore influences. "Fornever", while not under two minutes but barely breaking past that point, also shows off why some of these shorter songs work in the album's favor, as this one actually has more of a brutal vibe to the music then a technical performance.
Surprisingly, "Saliga" is about the time the music starts to leave the show-offish sound of the band behind a bit, and the music starts to become a little more enjoyable. "Committed", however, is more of a chugging track that shows technical elements through loud, shrill guitar distortions later against more technical yet somewhat Groove-driven music. It would be a great track overall had those migraine enducing shrill guitar effects. Also, because of the lesser technical material that does show up during the second half of this album, the vocals feel more suiting to the style. The range works well, especially during Grindcore elements like "Banishing Illusion has going for it, and the gutterals are given a chance to work with a brutal overall musical backdrop, allowing them to not feel a little out of place. Finally there's "Consequence of Solution", which is also worth talking about. It's another longer track that finds more success focusing on brutality then technicality, though the latter does appear more then on "Saliga". Due to that, the songs does seem to lose a little steam to it, but overall does still remain a rather brutalizing track that shows the band at their best.
While this band shows the members have accomplished a goal of being as technical as they possibly can, it greatly diminishing the album. What is being called their finest work is simply not that. The songs are too burdened with technicality and shows the band progressing more towards other technical Death Metal acts like the latest Braindrill, the transitions suck for the most part, the vocals are good but not a one hundred percent suitable substitute, and many of the songs just lack any real bite. It's a sad progression to see the band make, and while not all the songs are bad, there's plenty that are just decent with solid technical know how dominating everything. In all, it's a decent change of direction for the group, but one that asks everyone whether or not this change will ever really lead to something far more intense and brutal.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Nuclear Blast Records.
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