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On disc: Decrepit Birth



Polarity - Mike Thompson - 7 stars


www.myspace.com/decrepitbirth







Polarity

Polarity
(Pulverised Records - 2010)


Technical death metal... not one of my favorite genres I have to admit. I pretty much despise bands such as Necrophagist and Obscura and find that even the bands I do like, such as Nile, don't stand up to prolonged listens. Maybe its because the ridiculous overly complex guitar wankery takes precedence to writing a memorable song and when you couple that with the generally mundane cookie monster vocals it all adds up to something very uninteresting.
That being said its understandable that I wasn't looking forward to reviewing this latest offering from Decrepit Birth. Polarity is the US band's third full length album, with both their previous albums having been quite well received. However, I enjoyed this album a lot more than I thought I would!
Ok, the annoying trebly guitars still tend to whine over the chunky riffing in technical but not exactly impressive solos but sometimes its actually pleasant to listen to! In some parts the guitars remind me of that classic Megadeth-style thrash solo sound. Solar Impulse is one of the stand out tracks on the album, being a tremendous display of a good song with some well thought out solos.
The death metal riffing is good, if not truly memorable, and the drumming is great with some awesome machine gun kick-drumming that does its part to save many of the songs from becoming tedious guitar wank-fests. Vocally, Bill Robinson doesn't have the greatest range of extreme vocals but its still pretty brutal and horrifying stuff.
Overall I actually quite enjoyed this album and would probably place it on a par with Nile. Fans of the sub-genre will find a lot to like in this album and even those who don't normally enjoy the overly technical side of death metal should give it a try.


7 stars

Mike Thompson
 

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