Review Summary: To put it bluntly, Apocatastasis Reversed is generic, lazy-death metal.
With the release of Apocatastasis Reversed in 2007, 9th Plague would see their first and last album come to be. Unfortunately however, their sole full-length contribution to the world of semi-technical/brutal-death metal does very little to warrant the necessity of a follow-up, especially in a genre already full of clones and copycats. To put it bluntly, Apocatastasis Reversed is generic, lazy-death metal.
That is not to say however, that the members of the band are technically unskilled or lack the chops necessary to play the music that they were attempting to create, but instead that they lacked any originality in crafting those songs. For the duration of the album the listener is met with a pattern within each song that consists of chugging and tremolo-picked guitars, inaudible bass, and alternating blast beats and quick fills on the drums. Combine that with very little variation and poor production quality and it is hard pressed to think that anyone could really tell the songs apart from one another. As each song unfolds, the drums and guitars fight for supremacy within the mix, leaving the final result to be a muddled, almost incoherent slab of music.
For all the problems that Apocatastasis Reversed has, it is not completely without its enjoyable moments. Album opener, “The God Of Ekron Resurrected” shows 9th Plague firing on all cylinders, featuring a well-placed guitar solo and solid groove. Coincidentally, album closer “Visions Of An Unknown God” is also a relatively well-crafted song showing that 9th Plague are capable of playing the music that they continually threaten to play throughout the album. Other songs also have their brief enjoyable moments, but more often than not, they are placed between extended moments of musical stagnation.
On the vocal front of the album, another production problem arises. Seldom are the vocals mixed loud enough to be heard, and when they are, they do nothing to enhance the listening experience. They are by no means poorly delivered (by genre standards), but they seem to be more of an afterthought than the music that envelopes them. Some of the vocal patterns fit awkwardly within the songs (Beyond The Flesh, The Crypts Of Paradise), but for the most part they are just not present enough to make much of an impact.
To further elaborate on the music found throughout the album, it is best described as being “almost” fleshed-out. The guitars have a flimsy, sharp sound about them, and alternate between simple chromatic patterns and “almost” entirely sloppy tremolo patterns that suffer from the lack of a solid guitar sound. As previously stated, the bass is “almost” entirely inaudible except for a few moments when it is the only instrument being played. Arguably, the drumming is the most consistently technical performance throughout the album. Even as such, the lack of any coherent flow or beat within each song makes it difficult to grasp on to what is going on, and often kills any momentum the band had going for them.
In short, 9th Plague had the potential to make a solid death metal album. It seems like the songs were almost fully developed at the time of recording, but the completion of them fell by the wayside in favor of recording what was present. Unfortunately, good music isn’t made by almost getting it right, and as such, 9th Plague failed to make Apocatastasis Reversed an enjoyable listen, and more of a chore to get through.
