Review Summary: For those who like their death metal without cream or sugar
Getting smacked in the face is never fun, especially if you lose a few teeth in the process. Maybe this is why I find it humorous that metalheads often use descriptors like "face breaking", or "bone crushing" to describe a record they enjoy. Not to knock it, of course. I've been known to use a few adjectives like these to describe something I enjoy. Heck, I might even call this release "face melting" at some point but we'll have to see.
Okay, yeah, that seems appropriate I suppose. This record opens with a face melting, noisy and dissonant wash of blast beats and atonal riffage. We get some deep and gurgly barks to break the ferocity and then it's back into the same ass blasting as before. Oh, but wait! Half-time riffs over frantic drums are always fun and there's some of that here. They're not quite slams but they're in the spirit of nut busting(?), that's for sure. Exciting stuff.
What makes this album different from previous brutal death metal releases you ask? Well, to answer honestly, not much but maybe that's the beauty of it. My brain tells me it's about the sum of the parts and not so much those parts individually. Just ask the creepy-metaphysical-alien-tearing-itself-apart-man on the cover. Teeth seem to wear their influences on their gums, rather than straight out copying said influences. Okay, maybe someone was trying to sound exactly like Luc Lemay on track two. Luc is that you? Besides that, though, Teeth seem to have their own flavor. Nothing here is going to blow your mind or give you an existential crisis but I suppose that's for you to decide on. It may have blown my mind a bit but my objectiveness is telling me others might not feel the same way, because we're all spoiled by the massive collection of amazing death metal releases. Also, if you're already having an existential crisis, this album will definitely make it worse at least.
Pummeling, brutal and atmospheric at times, The Curse of Entropy has an enchanting flow to it, which I mostly attribute to the drums. Fills and embellishments have a tight and nuanced feel to them that sounds like Alejandro is effortlessly swooping his sticks around the kit. The snare sounds huge too; I'm pretty sure they blended a giant glass dildo hitting the snare into the overall mix. Guitarists Erol and Justin often break from playing the same riffs together and go all Gorguts chaotic on us. Who can argue with that? There's a lot of stop and go blasting; it definitely gives me anxiety if you're into that sort of thing. I don't know why you would be but I'm trying my best here, okay? Justin doubles as an angry boi with a bad case of indigestion and I'm a fan of the deep belching that results. Poor Peter doesn't get much time to himself but I'm sure the bass is well done, wherever it is. I'm kidding, you can make it out just fine and the tone is exquisitely chunky, there's just not a whole lot of it leading the charge, which would have been neat. Sorry, Peter.
All in all, this is an extra brutal, dogs barking outside, loud neighbor walking upstairs sort of album. These things have an air of annoying familiarity to them but if you give your imagination the reigns, it could be miniature werewolves tearing at each other's throats or people wrestling and stabbing each other over who gets to change the channel.
I don't know what that means but maybe you do. I'm going to go back to drinking my beer now. Hope everyone is staying safe, sane and staying heavy. m/ Go listen to this album.
