If someone were to ask me what the definition of death metal is, then I would tell them, Dying Fetus. The band's style is actually a combination of death metal and grindcore, often referred to as deathcore or deathgrind. Dying Fetus is a quartet with two guitars, a bass, and drums. The band's vocals are very unique beyond other death metal bands and consist of a combination of a very low and powerful death grunts, a mid-low growl/throat scream, and a mid-high growl/throat scream. The guitarists deliver an excellent example of musicianship throughout this album, including fast speed picking riffs, to open and palmuted power chord riffs, to some fine lead guitar work including arpeggios, scales, and harmonics. The bass is fast and heavy, and the drums could never fail to disappoint any metal head.
Destroy the Opposition is the latest album released next to Stop At Nothing, and in my opinion is better than Stop At Nothing. The band's lyrics focus on political and religious issues mostly, and are not quite as graphic as Cannibal Corpse's lyrics. As a matter of fact, Dying Fetus's lyrics are a lot easier to get into, as do a lot of metal heads share the same views as them (me being one). Even with the lyrics about politics, corruption, and religion, the band still delivers those awesome adrenaline-pumping lines such as "You crossed the line, and now your ***ed!"
Rather than going through how every song sounds, I'm only going to talk about a few of them.
1. Praise the Lord (Opium of the Masses): This song begins with the entire band playing a slower but heavy and catchy riff with a combo of open and palmuted power chords, and a pinch harmonic. The vocals all enter together one second after each other and hold before cutting out to the transition to the verse. The transition couldn't be any better either with the fast speed picking and scales; the vocals re-enter to convert the transition into the first verse. The drums are insane and perfectly matched to the musical aspects this song. It's hard to tell verse from chorus from bridge because this band changes up the riffs and timing so much in every song, but how could that disappoint anyone? The song returns to the intro riff before fading out. 5/5.
2. Epidemic of Hate: A single guitar starts this track with a menacing sounding palmuted riff, until about 0:05 when the second guitar, bass, and drums enter with a series of very nice drum roles and double bass drum. Just as the song begins to slow down, the first verse, probably the catchiest on the entire album, enters and sends its listener into a berserking head banging state (I did anyways). Again as the song continues the timing and riffs change a lot, but sticks mostly to heavy palmuted riffs. 5/5
5. Pissing In the Mainstream: The track starts with a guitar doing some very nice arpeggio work along with some fine drum work. The rest of the band enters and delivers a fast, powerful, speed-picking riff. Get ready for the bridge, because Dying Fetus is about to take you for a ride. The riff is very catchy and addictive; disappointingly it ends shortly and returns to the first verse just before the song ends, making the track only last about two minutes. 4/5
With that said I would like to close this review by saying that Dying Fetus rises above other death metal bands today because of the aggressiveness and energy. I wouldn't compare it with other bands that are more melodic such as Children of Bodom or Behemoth, because it is just not the same style. Dying Fetus is about the mainstream death metal and grindcore style, and of course, the moshing.
