I happened upon this little EP essentially by destiny. I'll spare the long story by simply saying that Adam Scott of old school DM act Cardiac Arrest recommended the album to me after some unseen force had attracted me towards the album before he had even said a word (he runs Death Dealer Distribution, so there was a 30x30 grid of CDs in front of me and we both honed in on the same one for some reason). I took this as a sign and quickly purchased Unearthly Affinity. Simply put, Impurity offer up roughly fifteen minutes of some of the most refreshing and satisfying, yet at the same time true to its roots, old school Floridian death metal I've ever had the pleasure of laying ears upon.
Unearthly Affinity is knee deep in Incantation and Immolation's collective swamp. The dirty, twisted, and mental riffing of the two seminal acts is a clear inspiration for the music found here. Segments like 47 seconds into "The Awakening of Kumbhakarna" or the halfway mark of the title track prove that death metal can still thrive with coherently written riffs. Too often nowadays do I see bands simply blast and tremolo their way to infamy or sweep and tap until their boners explode, it saddens me to think that the true spirit of death metal has kind of been lost for most of these newcomers. Thankfully, acts like this still exist to prove that songwriting is still the most important part to any creative process. I don't care how good of a player you are, if you can't write an interesting or captivating song then I'm going to quickly lose interest. So while there is no Necrophagist-esque soloing to be found, what's here is enough quality musicianship to seamlessly form into one, beastly whole. Special mention needs to be made of Ed Makowske's monstrous vocals. This man is the possessor of one of the most bestial and hellish roars I've heard. He sounds like one of the more dastardly minions of hell would sound like had he been given a human body. While yes, there may never be another Immolation, Morbid Angel, or Incantation, Impurity sure as hell come close to reaching the legendary quality of those three bands. Recommended for fans of the old school, riff driven style of pure death metal.
RATING - 93%
Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com
No comments:
Post a Comment