It's been a few years since I last heard this band's brand of heavily groove-laden, sludgy material, and in some ways this is better... but as a whole it's almost worse. First things first, the recording stinks. The drums are alright since they do have some density, but the kicks are way too clicky and jump out at you. The guitar tone is alright but lacks brightness and volume, the bass tone is alright but gets overly muddy and falls by the wayside too often, and the vocals are a little thin and raw, so they sound separated from the music. It's just a really sloppy recording, which is a shame since some of the riffs are better here. The emphasis is still on groovy rhythms, but it's not too nu-metally anymore, they're messing with more time changes and staggered chords, as well as some nice dissonance and melody. But the vocals are terrible, even worse than before. The spoken parts sound whiny and forced, the screams are too strained... I'm just not into the vocals at all. The guy's throat sounds totally blown out and he's not convincing. All of the vocal layering is also problematic because it sounds irritating and clouds up the mix a lot. The professionally pressed CD (an odd choice for a demo with no package) comes as is with minimal artwork and the track titles printed on the disc face, and that's it. I hate to be so blunt, but I can't imagine these guys are gonna get any attention off of this thing. "Preconceived" picks up the tempos a little and flirts with some minor grind influences, and the melodic riff in the chorus of "Eternity Purified" is fucking great, so if they could focus on blending more of that style of playing against the grooves they could do alright with a better recording and a stronger vocalist, but... I'm not digging this for the most part. Sorry.
[self-released]
Running time - 13:44, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: none are too good, but they do all have cool moments]
SkinKrawl - http://www.skinkrawl.com
