Ekpyrosis
Asphyxiating Devotion
(Memento Mori)
Death metal has been particularly exciting of late, with bands reinvigorating pretty much every style and sub-genre (Horrendous, Deserted Fear), while established acts keep on kicking (Immolation, Dark Tranquillity), not to mention how great tech and prog death have been the past few years. What will be exciting is watching bands start to meld styles together in creating something fresh (rotting?) and new. Italy’s Ekpyrosis aim to do just that with their debut record, and, well, they definitely bring together a nice heap of styles on Asphyxiating Devotion, but that desire to bring forth a bunch of ideas end up hurting the enjoyment of this otherwise impressive debut.
Ekpyrosis’ monster mash of influences range from Autopsy, Immolation, Necrophobic, and Incantation (to name a few), which makes for an album that loves pitched-harmonics, doom-soaked sections, rapid-fire HM-2 riffing, and a decided filth. The band excel in the slower, doom-infected parts, and many of the transitions are quite impressive (“Immolate the Denied” and “Incarnation of Morbidity” are particularly sublime most of the time). Oh, but the band lives and dies by their rapidly-approaching tempo changes and build-ups. These Italians fancy themselves sonic brewmasters, and the disparate elements certainly congeal rather well together through a good portion of the record. When things are going well, Ekpyrosis show off a ton of promise and potential. This is clearly a band with the chance to be truly great.
However, not all of the songs are expertly strung together, and the purveying filth sometimes diminishes the impact the tracks would otherwise have. It’s as if the doom-y sections were what they were aiming to perfect, with their murkiness and the punch of the riffs; however, this lack of clarity hurts the rest of the album, from a listening perspective. That said, the two real nit picks are rather small, and especially not concerning in a debut release. If Ekpyrosis can shore up their songwriting prowess (they clearly know how to do it, just doing it better over the course of an album) and get a better suited mix job, oh the possibilities.
