Synopsis:

What happens when an Australian trio mix the Texas styled, slammy, gurgly death metal of Devourment and the technical alacrity of Oppressor? Decaying Form-that’s what...

Review:

Here is one of those records I went into blind with no expectations whatsoever and ended up being pretty impressed. Despite a slightly clinical drum production (that helped with the Oppressor comparisons), this three piece deliver a mighty solid debut album that should appeal to tech death fans as well as ‘broodle’ death metal fans.

With plenty of Carcass styled medical and gore based pig squeals abound and plenty of slamming grooves, the Devourment comparison is obvious, but when listening to the vastly superior technical guitar work of Tom Pryor and the heavy stop/start, stuttering, riffs along with Linton Tuleja’s machine like drumming, you get the sense that despite the lyrics and grunts, the band is gunning for a slightly more  cerebral audience than the usual Devourment fare.

The ten songs are short and to the point (some under two minutes) delivering an impressive array of un-staccato, complex riffs that should appeal to fans of Necrophagist, Odious Mortem, Anata and such, though the pig grunts, may perturb some (though they will appeal to the Unique Leader/ Unmatched Brutality fans). The grooves aren’t quite as obviously break down-ish, but deliver plenty of less immediate heft; for example closer “Worming Existence: A Masticating Monstrosity” is a beast of a ‘slower’ track and in fact the album gets better as it goes along with the later half tracks like “Vivisection Of Gods: Image Of Man Disemboweled” and “Immolated Desecrations: The Repugnant Seed” having just a little more development than the albums, impressive but often wearily complex first half - maybe due to being less gore based?

Chronicles of Decimation is a surprisingly good, direct record and I have no idea how other Dan’s Crypt records are, but if this is anything to go by, I’ll have to check out future releases by the label.