Decrepit Birth

Polarity (Nuclear Blast)
By Mike Delano

Decrepit Birth walk some fine lines. Their summer 2010 stunner Polarity can be brutal, as one would expect from their death metal moniker, but that’s not the whole story. The blast beats and guttural growls don’t exist simply for punishment’s sake on this record – they’re very clearly just one piece of the progressive puzzle that the band has created. Even as they stomp over the accepted boundaries of the genre, the sound of the album is completely assured, whether stringing together the ten-songs-in-one “(A Departure of the Sun) Ignite The Tesla Coil” or navigating the wiry depths of the title track. Their sound is closer now than ever to the technical insanity that is very much in vogue, but it’s performed with a clarity and structure that puts it far above the dregs of show-off wankery while still remaining adventurous. Tightrope walks like these are always guaranteed to alienate those who demand one-dimensional fealty to one style exclusively, but Decrepit Birth are much more impressive as torchbearers of new sounds than servants to ones we already have.
(www.nuclearblastusa.com)