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First Impressions is a column that expresses my opinion based solely on my first impression as a casual listener. This is in no way an actual review, but what my first thoughts about the release are without being critical. Please know this before you slam my server with hate mail. |
I love Origin. When it comes to impressive Technical Death Metal, I'll almost always instantly run to Antithesis, as it's the right mixture of technicality and brutality. I've even had the honor of seeing this band live a few times, including on the tab for Summer Slaughter, as well as touring with Dying Fetus at a middle of nowhere (literally) venue called the Penn Monster Factory somewhere in Pennsylvania. There were only four of us who knew who the band was, and in turn, we spent the entire day talking to Paul Ryan (founding guitarist), and really getting to know James Lee, the group's vocalist at that time. It was cool that he remembered us, calling out to my friend, fiancee and I, who had gone to that small show by shouting "Hey! Magic shop!" since the venue was (again, literally) right behind a magic shop. The whole group were awesome to talk to, very fan oriented, and were just generally really awesome to be around. And then word got out James Lee was no longer part of Origin and that Jason Keyser, a man who worked with Skinless and Mucopus was taking over for the next album. I readily braced for impact, and with the release date for their fifth studio full-length, Entity, quickly approaching at the time of this impression, I was, at first, quite happy to read the band had put a track off the album onto their website.
Again, that was "at first". For as much as I love Origin, this song doesn't really give me high hopes for Entity. While Jason Keyser is a damn good Death Metal vocalist, he's no replacement for James Lee. The vocals just don't have that brutal edge that matches the brutality to the music, and it causes Origin to lose a lot of their edge they've had over the years. But, while the vocals don't really size up, the music here just doesn't really bring much to the table either. In the end, this song really just comes off as a "Look how technical I can be while I play!" sort of album. While that technical element is impressive, it's just not really Origin and comes off more like a Mathcore band trying to be Death Metal. The bass works for the release to keep the music sounding heavy, though never really offering much to the recording that comes off as special or unique except maybe some twanging sounds from the instrument here and there that are barely audible. What really shines through on the track is the drumming. It's cold, calculated, and punishing, using the double bass superbly throughout the recording without overdoing it, incorporating some cymbol-only sections to the track to keep the drums from becoming monotonous, which is a very welcome maneuver.
So, does it meet my expectations? Because my expectations were pretty low walking into this song, I have to say no since it actually surpassed my expectations instead of just meeting them. It doesn't necessarily leave me seething with anticipation for the Entity either though. In fact, it kind of pushed me away from it a bit. The song is too technical, and nowhere near brutal like the band's previous releases. Hopefully the rest of the album won't be like this, and who knows, maybe after some time with the song, it'll grow on me, or perhaps make more sense in the larger context of things after going through the album from start to finish. Either way, despite my being rather let down by the approach the band took for this song, I'm still anxious to hear the entire product, though cringing it might just be a shallow attempt to show off the group's technical skills and not be a truly brutal and unique experience.
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Click here to stream "Expulsion of Fury" off the band's official website. |
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