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Decrepit Birth: Polarity
25/10/10 || The Duff
Decrepit Birth are back with “Polarity”, the follow-up to their sophomore “Diminishing Between Worlds”, proving that they’re here for the duration where the time spent between debut and follow-up might have suggested otherwise. Well, I wasn’t entirely flabbergasted by the band’s 2008 effort, but my expectations were very high being a tech death aficionado; a hit-and-miss production, Death/Cynic leads but with less memorability, too many solos, average vocalist and one of KC Howard’s least flattering performances. Collectively these somehow still didn’t detract from the album’s overall charm, Matt Sotelo’s passion for music played through every note and making at the end of it all a satisfying product if marred in comparison to those taking the sub-genre forward.
Unfortunately it may be the band’s final relevant effort, as the quality of the music has taken a drastic dip making “Polarity” a sadly overdrawn affair; some people (well, three I’ve crossed the interwebs with) say listening to Decrepit Birth makes them think along the lines of bands they should enjoy but don’t, but honestly no hype should change the fact (objectivity aside) that this is bland as butter without the thirty dollar hooker ass-crack to spoon it out of.
One reason for this is that Matt Sotelo is a terrible songwriter – tech death demands you write parts that flow well together. Unfortunately, this is Matt’s project and Matt’s project alone by the sounds of things, a bedroom-guitar practitioner if ever there was one; someone else’s input sure could have persuaded Sotelo to return to the drawing board and been saviour to a significant amount of tasty morsels devalued by a gross abundance of practice exercises, but everyone’s performance here is to suit the whims of the main and probably only composer.
That said, the songwriting has taken a step-up: the structuring, as completely non-conventional (and unfortunately non-enthralling) as it is, is more thought out, experience in arranging riffs more apparent, it’s simply where “Diminishing Between Worlds” was catchy and somewhat emotionally charged, this is played in a flat, uni-directional manner despite Sotelo’s drive to emulate all of his inspirers.
At the core, the music is, with the exception of some keys, not at all different to what appeared on the album’s immediate predecessor; the solos are more intelligently placed, appear less plastered all over the piece, yet are one of the album’s few saving graces – there are very few striking riffs on “Polarity”, KC Howard’s drumming is still criminally uninventive, and Bill Robinson is as always one of the least creative/interesting vocalists on the market.
I’ll give you some examples of just how bad it gets (“Metatron” – 1:51-2:04, “Polarity” – 0:35, “The Quickening of Time“ at 1:34-1:43 where Mr. Sotelo clearly humors his audience and a wtf moment with “Mirroring Dimensions” at 2:06), and the pick of the litter (best riff on “Polarity”, title track – 2:36-2:44, 0:00-0:13 of “Sea of Memories” hooorah!,and a good use of synth at 0:23 during “A Brief Odyssey in Time”).
I think Decrepit Birth have become a trendy band to like – newer crowds that have yet to understand arpeggios (hey, we all break our cherry sometime, right? I was first ear-raped to the sounds of Loomis on “Enemies of Reality”, so not so long ago) – but there isn’t much Schuldiner greatness here or any of the relevance associated with their earlier tech/brutal manifestation; no catchiness, and a plethora of guitar tricks that go nowhere – the meat of the tracks are either chug/palm-muted/staccato dull, ill-placed or fill-in-the-blank tech-riffs/leads from superior bands that understand the sub-genre on far subtler grounds.
- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Nuclear Blast
- Website: Decrepit Birth MySpace
- Band
- Bill Robinson: vocals
- Matt Sotelo: guitars
- Joel Horner: bass
- KC Howard: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. (A Departure of the Sun) Ignite the Tesla Coil
- 02. Metatron
- 03. The Resonance
- 04. Polarity
- 05. Solar Impulse
- 06. Mirroring Dimensions
- 07. A Brief Odyssey in Time
- 08. The Quickening of Time
- 09. Sea of Memories
- 10. Symbiosis
- 11. Darkness Embrace
