Thursday, November 26, 2009

Decrepitaph - Condemned Cathedral


"The book of Death gives the power to summon
From the graveyard they are beckoned to live again
Smell of rotting flesh is in the night air
Up from hell they rise to feast on your skin"

Decrepitaph are a US-based death metal band. They describe themselves as playing ancient, primitive dark death metal influenced by the old masters Incantation, Asphyx, Derketa, ... . They are part of the Razorback catalogue and as is custom with that label their lyrics take inspiration from old horror flicks. When Elektruktioner was asked wether they would ever write a song that doesn't involve zombies, he promptly replied "No!". Decrepitaph came to life in 2004 with their Grotesque Dwellings demo and by the time they released the Ancient Death Metal promo they managed to spark the interest of Billy from the Razorback label. I am personally not the biggest Razorback fan, but at least they support death metal in it's most ancient form and that's always a good thing.

On a band picture of Decrepitaph you can see Elektrokutioner supporting a Nortt shirt. That should give you somewhat of an indication, that Condemned Cathedral is going be pretty heavy. The guitar tone is incredibly distorted and very vile. The vocals are mostly deep guttural growls with some filthy snarls in between and the drums are interesting all the way through. Mostly venturing in mid-paced territory, sometimes a bit faster and at times devestatingly slow like on the closer track Crawling Out From The Crypt or the ending of A Burial In Hell. The slower moments make for a perfect template to add some really morbid riffs and leads and that's exactly what is being done, just listen to the ending of Crawling Out From The Crypt. Crushing heavy death metal while a morose guitar lead graces the background solemnly. Decrepitaph don't try to cram a thousand riffs into one song. They use repetition to their advantage, but still provide the necessary variety by throwing in particulary effective guitar leads and changing the paste frequently. Condemned Cathedral is heavy and doomy, but the whole album supports a sickening kind of groove (Worship The Dead), which makes it perfect for your headbanging pleasures. This is a blind purchase for anyone who likes their death metal ancient and primitive. And from what I gather, a new album is in the works and to be released soon!

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