Review Summary: HAIL SATAN!
I'd just like to know where the hell Symptom came from? The most appropriate answer for that question is that they came straight from the pits of hell and that is apparent after listening to their self-titled debut full-length. They play some very filthy old-school styled death metal with influences of sludge and doom. If you were to say this album sounded like it came out of the Finnish death metal scene, it'd be hard to argue with you because, by the sounds of things, these guys are heavily influenced by such Finnish bands as Stench of Decay, Adramelech, Rippikoulu, and Hooded Menace.
Something that is extremely obvious here, which I kinda touched on earlier, is the influences from sludge and doom metal and that's apparent as soon as the album begins, starting off with a heavy as balls death/doom riff. At their core, Symptom is a death metal band, but to say they were purely a death metal band would be a blatant lie. This album is basically just bone crushing riff after bone crushing riff shoved into a 25 minute span until you're pounded into submission and drenched in it's dirty atmosphere. Production here is very muddy, but that's what makes it even better. This album could've come straight out of the 90's death metal scene and you wouldn't know the difference.
I can guarantee you one thing, Symptom is a band that is going to make some serious noise in the death metal scene over the next couple of years. Hopefully they're not just a one hit wonder like a lot of other great death metal bands and break up after just one album. For now though, there's still hope for this band to keep on chugging along and grace metalheads' ears with some more sludge induced grimy death metal. Look out for this band.
