Style: Nasty ass death metal, dissonant death metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Laying in squalor, living among the sewars, unclean horrors
Thoughts: Oh boy this is a good album. Oh mama is this a nasty slice of dissonant death metal.
The instant the album starts my ass is kicked. The opening riff slides up and down the fret board making it sound like some deranged decaying alien crying out for help. The drums blast away at a rare intensity and the vocals bellow like a creature from the darkest abyss. It's fucking dope.
To Crown All Befoulment is one of the better album titles I've heard in recent memory. Not only does it catch my attention because it sounds cool, it perfectly describes the album's sound. The riffs on Dearth's debut are done in such a nasty way that they perfectly reflect all things that are fowl and rancid. They are chaotic but not sloppy, they are dissonant but not impossible to follow, they are complex yet catchy enough that they stick with you.
The band has this uncanny knack for knowing what riffs go together effortlessly. The riffs are varied and can often get quite dissonant though they never get to the point where they are painful on the ears. What the band does masterfully is know when to pull things back, to reign in the chaos and let the music breathe for a measure or two before ramping things back up.
Dearth are keenly aware of what makes their music work, and the album length is a key indicator of that. This kind of music is best taken in small doses, and the 30 minute play time leaves me wanting more instead of feeling over saturated and wanting to turn the album off.
What a hell of a debut album. These guys know exactly what they are doing and how to execute it to near perfection. I'll be looking for their next album with an excitement I rarely have anymore for new music.
Written October 2nd 2023
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