Decrepit Birth – Polarity

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There might not be a band that is more anticipated in popular extreme metal today than Decrepit Birth. Don’t let their image fool you: Although they may wear long-sleeve band shirts and as much hair on their heads as they do on their faces, this is anything but a Barnes-era Cannibal Corpse rip-off. Polarity delivers a somewhat refreshing take on modern American death metal and does some things right, but ultimately stagnates in the second half to leave the fans wanting more. The opening track, (A Departure of The Sun) Ignite The Tesla Coil, is fantastic. It’s a six-and-a-half minute opus that serves its purpose to show just what to expect from the rest of the album. A major factor of Decrepit Birth’s sound is that they’re surprisingly technical without being over the top. The talent may not be through the roof, but the songwriting makes up for that. Tracks like Polarity show off how melody and technicality can coalesce with standard death metal riffing to create a soup consisting of equal parts Necrophagist, Obscura, Suffocation, early Gorguts and later Death. Despite all this, however, there are a few weak points on the album. Solar Impulse sounds completely out of place, almost as if most of the song was written by a different band on a different label for a different crowd. “A Brief Odyssey Of Time” should have been cut from this album. It includes keyboards and an almost synth-like bass line and at barely over a minute in length, the band would have been better off just using some sort of intro for the next track; the track really serves no purpose. But don’t worry, Polarity has more good and entertaining moments than disappointing ones. Newcomers to the death metal scene and fans who are tired of the same American deathcore bands passing themselves off as death mtal can find solace in Decrepit Birth. The band might not be able to decide whether it wants to be a standard death metal band, technical death metal, or brutal death metal (or heaven forbid they slip up and become melodic death metal) but it sure is fun to listen to them try to find their sound.

Written by Jackson May
More: 2010, Albums, Death Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Decrepit Birth