Unremarkable death metal EP. Sounds like late '90s "plain" death metal in that there's not really an extra descriptor (technical, brutal, melodic, old-school, etc.) that really fits it. If it were simply generic, I'd probably feel neutral about it, but there are enough little missteps that I feel it's slightly below average. Although I wouldn't hesitate to say it's not that good, it is cohesive enough where it's not terrible.
It doesn't happen too often throughout the course of the CD and it's not even that prominent, but occasionally there will be kinda chuggy riffs that rub me the wrong way and give this a slight metalcore or groove undercurrent. The vocals sometimes accentuate this, because the switches between gruffer shouted lows and forced manic near-BM screams come off very much like -core vox. The band also attempts to use shreddy melodic solo sections in songs like "Remnants of Humanity" and "Torment," but the solos come off as disjointed and amateurish. It's a shame, because they could have been a potential highlight, but it sounds like they were just too far beyond the guitarist's ability to effectively pull off. Even with all my criticisms, I thought "Torment" was an alright song.
After I listened to this I looked up the band on Metal-Archives and happened to notice they were categorized as "black/death metal." Judging by the shirts in some of the band photos, at least some of the members are into black metal, but it doesn't reflect in the music much. I suppose considering some of the tremolo picked parts together with the higher vocal style, certain riffs might have some slight black metal undertones. But calling this black/death overall seems like a stretch.
So yeah, I've done much better in the bargain bin, but it doesn't feel like I completely wasted two bucks either.
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