Origin "Echoes of Decimation" CD
[Relapse]
Origin is a strange and inconsistent band for me.  I don't know if it's all the lineup changes or what, but I definitely liked their self-titled debut, and then I thought the follow-up basically sucked due to an annoying recording.  This time out they've definitely made some improvements over where they were with "Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas", thankfully, but I'm still not really into it regardless.  The reason?  Despite the fact that the songs (and record) are incredibly succinct and tightly performed, there's almost no feeling to the songwriting whatsoever.  It's nothing but blazing speed, speed, and more speed.  Expect blasting percussion with shitloads of quick fills with some nifty cymbal work, barked vocal patterns jumping between layers of low growls and higher sneers not unlike Deicide, and an endless stream of blistering tremolo picked riffs and hyper speed thrash with your usual doses of wickedly frantic flurries of notes.  It's definitely an exercise in extreme endurance, and though it doesn't really feel complex, the riffing is certainly pretty god damn technical.  But while I admire their proficiency in that regard, and I do certainly find that the brevity of the material was a tasteful decision, I'm simply not moved in the least by the songwriting.  Very few riffs jump out and grab me at all, with most of the songs sounding quite similar to one another overall.  Ironically one of the longest tracks, "Staring From the Abyss", is my favorite.  A little redundant at times, but it seems to let a little dissonance seep into some of the chord progressions, with a few subtly more spacious riffs that better allow the thrashy picking patterns to shine.  Elsewhere it's only "Endless Cure" that also has more of a super fast thrash metal vibe to some of its rhythms, actually letting a little chunky density show itself when there are faint breathers around all of the blasting.  The recording is a massive improvement over the last outing, though.  It's not perfect, but the improved sound quality alone makes the biggest difference in placing this disc ahead of the last in terms of overall quality.  The vocals sound fine to me (and I must admit that I do think the vocal performance is damn good, with more interesting music to work with I think this dude could do some damage), and despite being clicky and taut there's enough oomph to the percussion to hold things down.  As far as the bass goes I can't really make out a great deal of it, and the guitar tone is solid but I feel like it needs a little more volume or fullness to fill the space the way it should.  As it stands drums and vocals tend to start overpowering the guitars a lot of the time, so a little more tweaking could still yield more effective results.  The layout doesn't do much for me but looks pretty decent and sticks to the band's outer space sort of imagery and keeps the text nice and crisp.  The lyrics are longer than expected but the content's not really my thing, kind of coming off as typically suggestive yet open death metal lyrics what with lines like, "I've forsaken destiny, for malignancy, I have crushed the sacred and the wicked, Equal in my eye of eyes, your demise, Pulverizing all the blinded sheep..."  I don't know, the "Reign in Blood" formula of hauling ass and keeping things short but sweet for less than 30 minutes only carries you so far, you know?  But every song on "Reign in Blood" kicks ass, whereas none of these do.  Hey, don't get me wrong, this is a competent and well played death metal record, and fans who like it fast and brutal will probably be all over this (tossing me off as a huge "poser" in the process), but it's not creative or intense enough from a songwriting standpoint to click with me.  More tempo variation could make an enormous difference for these guys. (6/10)
Running time - 26:26, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Endless Cure, Staring From the Abyss]
Relapse Records - http://www.relapse.com

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