These Californian death metallers have been around for a god damn long time now, their roots stretching back into the late eighties. But you wouldn’t guess that from their output, which has been spotty to say the least. But the quality of their stuff is surely there in spades, and this lengthy EP of material captures that quality perfectly. The band’s sound is certainly in league with post Morbid Angel theories, but also exudes the sort of dark and shadowy sound that many bands of this ilk try and fail to capture. Thus even though the drums sometimes thrash away at grinding speeds, the black hue of the material never fades. “Asphyxiation” balances lingering doom of a very Sabbath sort with high speed dark death, and highlights bassist Jay Cortez’s rumbling voice (a bit like that of Ross Dolan of Immolation, a good thing). And while “Conflict Within” lashes out with thrash velocity galore, the hammer hard riffs and crawling passages in “Dark Predictions” reveal this band’s scope. Likewise a pronounced Slayer (but far bleaker) influence enters the house with “Condemned In Misery,” while the fact the album opens and closes with instrumental tracks of considerable atmospheric presence just amplifies this band’s skills. A really great death metal record, it actually smokes a lot of stuff from much higher profile acts. Great band indeed, as is their website. I just wish they’d record more stuff, man.
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