Review Summary: Hark! The Gothenburg Revival lives on! Majesties did it last year. Upon Stone did it last month. Desparity does it now!
Wait—I know what you’re thinking!
Vast Reaches Unclaimed and
Dead Mother Moon didn’t fully deliver and a full Gothenburg Revival has yet to be realized. They’re tributaries. The kind of tributaries that pay tribute. Actually, no. I mean as rivers. Ever-flowing streams (eh?). Vessels in which this most delicate and holy style of death metal flows through the ether. A very, very important part of the process, you see. Without such channels of transport, the sound I so brazenly adore may as well be sunk in the nautical depths of the heavy music underworld.
So where does
The Incessant fit in this marine metaphor? In keeping with the theme, Desparity is trudging along the river at varying paces with the port of Gothenburg on the horizon. It’s nearly there! Sometimes the wind is fully in its sails; sometimes her crew must steadily row the oars.
The Incessant is the matrimony of fast and melodic riffing a la 90s-era In Flames, At the Gates, and Dark Tranquillity with the low, slow, and utter doom passages of Evoken, Paradise Lost, and Esoteric. Songs that start off fast and melodic will decrescendo into slow and heavy while songs that start slow and heavy crescendo into fast and melodic. This very simple formula works exceptionally well as it is repeated throughout the album’s inoffensive 40-minute runtime.
Like all melodic death metal of the Swedish variety, the highlights are the guitar work and
The Incessant is clearly no exception. The melodies are catchy, uplifting, and reminiscent of Gothenburg’s best. The solos are virtuoso. The slower, doomier passages are crunchy and heavy. The vocals alternate between low gutterals and higher, raspier growls. The mix is modern yet gritty enough that if I told you this was recorded in 1998, you just might believe me. Sure, the drumming could sound more organic and be a tad flashier and a pinch of more audible and twangy bass would add, but it’s a sixteen year-old’s solo project! All parts were played and recorded by a Croatian teenager named Bruno Smolcic who can only go up from here. The kids are most indubitably alright.
