Country: Colombia
Genre: Death metal
Full length: Carroñero de la Existencia
Format: Digital album
Label: Independent
Release date: June 30, 2023
“Carroñero de la Existencia” is an album I had to listen to quite closely, and during several sittings. This is because I suspected they’re finding more creative methods of expressing brutality. Being a Colombian death metal band, Denial of Existence does what they’re most passionate about on their debut recording. The experience two founding members have had working together in Abysmal Domination is no disadvantage.
From my experience as a reviewer, and listening to music that's not metal for years, I found many DM bands are underestimated for their ability. This band argues convincingly that musicians have to know what they’re doing to win over a selective and unforgiving audience. Equally convincing is the argument that sticking to one’s guns doesn’t mean being an elitist gatekeeper either.
On this album I hear subtle references written into the low-tuned guitars and blasts. Which proves bands can be brutal while incorporating shades of prog, jazz, and classical in a non-overbearing way and without placing themselves on pedestals. Since blast had its origins in classical and progressive rock, it makes sense that bands drift toward honing this style. Just ask Cannibal Corpse, Cryptopsy, and Cattle Decapitation, just a few bands who took brutality in completely different directions.
Denial of Existence is following suit, taking this natural route to expand death metal's boundaries. Their grassroots approach should satisfy DM fans across the board while confirming the talent and endurance needed to record an album of this intensity. Classical undertones and time signatures comparable to prog rock are all too apparent in the opening riffs of “Inconsistente Superficial”, and this is just the start of the album. This track is heavily driven by the percussion with interchanging fills and bomb blasts, the guitars leave many rock guitarists at the starting gate, cramming myriad notes into the time changes and the bass displays enough presence to back everything.
The lyrics are mostly delivered in Spanish, and the vocals consistently balance low and high-pitched techniques in a way that's as chaotic as the music behind them. This appears to grow more complex as the album progresses. The songs consistently start without preliminary and the time changes showcase such speed, abruptness, and precision that you'll start to wonder how they accomplish it.
Repeated exposure to “Carroñero de la Existencia” doesn’t crush your brain but enhances it with Denial of Existence’s clear sense of imagination and inventiveness. This furnishes hell with undiscovered circles of torture and punishment you couldn’t have imagined, that would send Dante Alighieri into shock. Highly recommended for souls condemned to the pit. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
[album]
Alexander Olaya: Vocals, guitars, bass
Cesar López: Drums
[live]
Alexander Olaya: Vocals, guitars
Harold Gómez: Bass
Cesar López: Drums
1. Inconsistente superficial
2. Homocancer
3. Manipulación
4. Almas en desgracia
5. Reconstruido sobre ruinas
6. Sea of Repugnance
7. Inteligencia artificial
8. Existencia denegada
9. Tiempo orgánico
No comments:
Post a Comment