EXISTENTIA - Calculating Failure
October 18, 2021, 3 years ago
(Independent)
Always nice to see a young death metal band start smart by releasing a four-song EP, this Philadelphia group releasing a couple of singles earlier this year then this impressive and solid piece of DM.
And it's refreshing, opener “Planned Obsolescence” starting things off very strong, the band adept at brutal death, grinding death, and a mid-tempo slog through Obituary's swamps. The production is spot-on for this sort of sound, and although I always want things to be a bit less clinical, you get the feeling these guys want perfection, and they want you to hear how every note and hit is exactly where it should be. So, fine, I'll buy it, just like I'll buy the title track's amazing grinding during big open riffs, “Artifice Hallucination”'s killer drum performance and breakneck groove, and “Fulminate”'s brutal death technicality.
Very impressive debut here, the musicianship is top-notch, the recording is great, the songs just diverse enough, man, the cover art is even cool. Existentia could easily extend this to a 10-song full-length and keep it interesting, no small feat for a band plying the brutal death trade in 2021.
