Decrepit Birth - Polarity (First Impression)

[josh pelican]

I received this album in mail today along with a shirt and a Cannibal Corpse DVD.

Let me tell you all right now. It's Decrepit Birth. Of course it fucking rules.

Now, as soon as the first song kicks in I start nodding my head, like I'm saying "Yes" to every beat. "Yes, yes, yes! This rocks!"

But then with some songs, they slow it down a bit and I sometimes switch it like "No, no, no! Don't stop a rockin'!

At first when I heard about this album, I was skeptic. I mean, their last two releases were fucking flawless... but you know what some bands are like. They put out some good albums then just turn to suck. No, not Decrepit Birth. This album is solid from start to finish. They are still one of the top-of-the-line death metal bands of today's rosters. That is not an opinion. That is a fucking fact. If you disagree with me, you're just an idiot. Do not try to dispute this. I will come up with scientific and mathematical equations to prove that Decrepit Birth are one of the best death metal acts today and that you are fucking inbred.

So what am I trying to get at, you ask? Let me break it down for you.

These Santa Cruz, CA death dealers shun studio chicanery and keep their metal simple: gargantuan riffs, skull-shattering drums, ripping solos and vile death growls. One of the most intense offerings is the instrumental "Solar Impulse," a spacey, prog-metal rocket launch into headbanging glory that would equally please fans of Job for a Cowboy and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Matt Sotelo is a fucking mad man when it comes to guitars. His guitar riffs are brutal, melodic, technical, and incredible. As seen on the last two albums, his guitar work is amazing.

KC Howard is still as tight as a newborn cunt on the drums. Whether he's blasting, adding fills, or just straight up grooving... this guy knows what's up. I forgot to mention him in the "death metal drummers appreciation" thread, so here is my honorary mention. Howard is an undeniably bewildering drummer. It sucks that he's not in the band anymore... but things happen. Naw mean? He was on "Diminishing Between Worlds", but "... And Time Begins" was handled by Tim Yeung.

Joel Horner handles all bass duties and does it well. As on previous albums (aside from "... And Time Begins", which was recorded by Derek from Suffocation), he's not just following the guitars in every riffs, especially in parts with harmonies or leads. The bass sits VERY well in the mix. Horner is an underrated bass player in my eyes. He never gets mention like Steve DiGiorgio and the like, and I am guilty of forgetting him when writing out favorite metal bassists. The bass is always heard. When there are several guitar tracks playing harmonies and leads, the bass is behind there doing its own thing... and it's doing it well.

Mr. Bill Robinson is still doing vocals, and fuck me if he were to quite or be replaced. People may say he's a typical "death metal vocalist", but he's fucking good. His vocals are low enough to fit in perfectly. In some parts, they are pretty intense and borderline guttural. He's still doing the same ole Bill Robinson thing and if it changes, I'll punch everyone in the band. Seriously.

The last song on the album is "See Through Dreams", which, of course, is a Death cover.

Overall, this album is fuckin' bumpin' (as they say). Decrepit Birth rule SO FUCKING HARD. Right now, they also have a guitar giveaway contest for a Jackson signed by the band.

They're aiming to release their next album (to be titled "Balances of the Sun") in 2012 some time. Hopefully I am not disappoint... but judging by "Polarity", they are progressing quite well.

If you don't have this album, get it. If you have to download, buy it later.

Thanks for reading.

-Josh Pelican

 

[ittoa666]

I will come up with scientific and mathematical equations to prove that Decrepit Birth are one of the best death metal acts today and that you are fucking inbred.

That was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

This album is ridiculous. As soon as I heard the resonance, I was won. They are an unstoppable machine of techdeath glory. Mat is one of the best deathmetal guitarists to date. I love it.

 

[Arteriorrhexis]

Fucking loooove this album. I think Solar Impulse is my favorite

 

[clouds]

Funny you should post this, as I listened to it start to finish earlier whilst sanding down my old strat. The album is great and all your statements are true. KC Howard is an absolute tank but he's left now Let's hope the next studio drummer follows in his footsteps.

I love Decrepit Birth's sound, the production, the harmonies, the variation in absolutely everything whilst still maintaining a signature sound, the obvious Death influence, everything.

Now for the self debate on which album I prefer

 

[tacotiklah]

I LOVE this album! Everything about it is perfect imho. Yeah its not as heavy as ...And Time Begins or DBW, but I think that's a good thing. No sense in beating that horse to death. I think what they did was marry tech and prog with brutal death metal. Basically they did everything that I had hoped to achieve in my own music on this album. They made use of dynamics, clean and acoustic guitars, brutally heavy riffage sometimes all in the same song! My biggest beef with modern metal is the lack of ANY dynamics and these guys truly pulled it off and did so in a way that actually made the songs sound BETTER.

My pick for best album of 2010 so far.

 

[josh pelican]

The last two posts bring a tear to my eye. I'm already starting to get anxious for the next release. I know it's going to be perfect in terms of production, Sotelo's riffing, and those delicious vocals. The drums HAVE to be someone really good and well known, or some YouTube phenomenon that's only played covers to show he's fucking tight and machine-like.

clouds, you might find yourself going crazy trying to think of which album you like most.

 

[clouds]

clouds, you might find yourself going crazy trying to think of which album you like most.

Yeh, well we'll see This album is definitely one of my faves for 2010.

 

[Acatalepsy]

I really don't like their newer, more melodic style. ATB is still cool though.

 

[tacotiklah]

The last two posts bring a tear to my eye. I'm already starting to get anxious for the next release. I know it's going to be perfect in terms of production, Sotelo's riffing, and those delicious vocals. The drums HAVE to be someone really good and well known, or some YouTube phenomenon that's only played covers to show he's fucking tight and machine-like.

clouds, you might find yourself going crazy trying to think of which album you like most.

If he didn't already have so much on his plate, I'd vote for Gene Hoglan.

Maybe Mike Smith might help out since Derek Boyer has helped the band out in the past.

 

[shredfreak]

Never really checked them out untill now & i gotta say that's some great shizzle they got

 

[Steve08]

I have NO idea how so many people are saying Polarity is amazing...

Like, really, they released amazing brutal death in the form of ...ATB and then took a complete nosedive. If you think this is amazing, listen to Vengeful or Ulcerate.

 

[ittoa666]

I have NO idea how so many people are saying Polarity is amazing...

Like, really, they released amazing brutal death in the form of ...ATB and then took a complete nosedive. If you think this is amazing, listen to Vengeful or Ulcerate.

You're obviously butthurt about them not being suffocation worship anymore, which is ridiculous. Like, really?

 

[tacotiklah]

You're obviously butthurt about them not being suffocation worship anymore, which is ridiculous. Like, really?

This right here. So what if they add some melody and actually take the time to orchestrate their music a bit? Like I said, the one thing that really puts my grapefruits in a vice regarding metal is the complete disregard for dynamics. Lack of dynamics would be cool if it wasn't for the fact that that horse was beaten and then skullfucked to death.

I say mass kudos to the band for trying to do something more fresh and original sounding as opposed to being yet another fucking Suffocation clone.


My favorite track on the album:
YouTube - Decrepit Birth - (A Departure of the Sun) Ignite the Tesla Coil

 

[Steve08]

You're obviously butthurt about them not being suffocation worship anymore, which is ridiculous. Like, really?

No I'm not, I'm "butthurt" about them going from great BDM to some melodic crap with more wank and less song structure compared to Diminishing Between Worlds. I'm not taking the controversial opinion purposely because everyone has been preaching Polarity as the gospel, I genuinely think it is a major step down. And for the record Suffocation is awesome.

I'll use this as an example:



Ok, off the bat there's some pretty harmonized guitar orchestration that by itself is cool, then it turns into death metal. The first riff is decent and the one after that is junk. Then there's a palm muted Cynic-esque thing-- HEY LOOK ACOUSTIC GUITARS! Yeah, you can't possible say that's a good transition at all. Then it gets all melodic and uplifting (in yet another sloppy transition), and again by itself is "pretty" on the surface, but it doesn't fit remotely in terms of what's been played before. It's like Matt Sotelo has a GuitarPro file that's 800 measures long and just copies and pastes random parts to assemble a song. And then there's another random acoustic section that makes no sense to include after a fadeout.

Boring. I've heard music that is more brutal, more melodic, and not as boring, that's far more original sounding. Plus, quite a bit of the more melodic riffs just really sound like Death/Cynic. Hence why this album gets a resounding "meh". 60/100, at best.

And before you accuse me of being "close-minded" or anything else, brutal death is far from my favorite genre, I just am a fan of looking past the bells and whistles (omg! beautiful melodies!... etc...) to see how structurally sound something is, and that's precisely where this band falls apart like a house of cards.

 

[Acatalepsy]

^exactly. I like later Death and Cynic, so that style of music is appealing to me. I just think the execution is a bit lackluster here.

 

[Unknown Doodl3.2]

I have NO idea how so many people are saying Polarity is amazing...

Like, really, they released amazing brutal death in the form of ...ATB and then took a complete nosedive. If you think this is amazing, listen to Vengeful or Ulcerate.

Quoted For Truth

Everything is Fire was the best album of 09' and it didn't get so much as a few mentions in thee parts. Original melodies and structural ingenuity are abound on this record.

Polarity is nothing particularly special. Although it is better than the steaming turd that was Diminishing Between Worlds.

 

[Eptaceros]

Not a fan. I've got my overdose of guitar wankery in 8th-9th grade.

 

[ittoa666]

No I'm not, I'm "butthurt" about them going from great BDM to some melodic crap with more wank and less song structure compared to Diminishing Between Worlds. I'm not taking the controversial opinion purposely because everyone has been preaching Polarity as the gospel, I genuinely think it is a major step down. And for the record Suffocation is awesome.

I'll use this as an example:



Ok, off the bat there's some pretty harmonized guitar orchestration that by itself is cool, then it turns into death metal. The first riff is decent and the one after that is junk. Then there's a palm muted Cynic-esque thing-- HEY LOOK ACOUSTIC GUITARS! Yeah, you can't possible say that's a good transition at all. Then it gets all melodic and uplifting (in yet another sloppy transition), and again by itself is "pretty" on the surface, but it doesn't fit remotely in terms of what's been played before. It's like Matt Sotelo has a GuitarPro file that's 800 measures long and just copies and pastes random parts to assemble a song. And then there's another random acoustic section that makes no sense to include after a fadeout.

Boring. I've heard music that is more brutal, more melodic, and not as boring, that's far more original sounding. Plus, quite a bit of the more melodic riffs just really sound like Death/Cynic. Hence why this album gets a resounding "meh". 60/100, at best.

And before you accuse me of being "close-minded" or anything else, brutal death is far from my favorite genre, I just am a fan of looking past the bells and whistles (omg! beautiful melodies!... etc...) to see how structurally sound something is, and that's precisely where this band falls apart like a house of cards.

I think this argument might be one of taste, and not only that, but I'd accuse you of nitpicking. You chose one song and judged the entire album? What about the rest? Your "points" fall apart like a house of cards, sir.

 

[Unknown Doodl3.2]

Your "points" fall apart like a house of cards, sir.

Not really. I suggest looking up the definition of an example.

It sounds like you accuse the guy of nitpicking because you haven't found anything intelligent to reply to his (fair and explained) criticisms.

 

[hypermagic]

Sorry bros but Decrepit Birth's leads are nowhere near wank territory.
This album is amazing, and this is coming from a person that loves Ulcerate, Death, Cynic and Suffocation.