Review Summary: cancer sucks, good dm doesnt m/
It’s like a big ol’ safety net for the reaper; if nothing else gets to you first cancer will make sure to murk you properly and send you beneath the clay. Whatever combination of genetic predisposition, environmental factors and the wear and tear of old age all lead to the accumulations of errors in the cell division process until the shit starts growing uncontrollably and eventually begins to disrupt other things in the body. The end is something we all have to reckon with eventually, no matter how hard or bitterly we fight and writhe and cry in our feeble attempts to outrun it. But the sickening, insidious, despondent truth about cancer and about life in general is that it can always strike no matter how prepared or cautious you think you’ve been, no matter how old or young or healthy. No matter how deep they try to hide their head in the sand and make up justifications for how the world is somehow just and fair in some intangible way, chaos and entropy don’t give the slightest slime-ridden fuck about anything, and we can all lose anything and everything without a moment’s notice, even those closest and most important to us, those who have taught us everything… Too many I’ve cared about I’ve seen claimed by cancer, and I’ll likely be seeing more, and I’ll be lucky if I do, because at least I’ll still be here to carry their memory… what a cruel joke.
We can’t control what life throws at us no matter how much we regret and cry and seethe about it, all we can control is how we react, and maybe hedge our bets a little here and there. People have many faults but at least we have the potential to learn, adapt, grow, carry on, find meaning… although it is not always trivial to tap into it. And if cancer turns the life-giving cell division into death, in some ways you could say human creativity can turn death and the emotions surrounding it into life, into art. That we’re here to talk about death metal could be seen as cruel joke number two. Yet what we have here is the fruits of one man’s journey, using the paint of his thoughts and feelings and his knowledge of the medium with his own brush to breathe life onto the canvas of death metal. Not a genre many would find fitting for conveying this, but the skill, care and hard work are undeniable.
The first striking thing about Resonant Filth’s Depraved State is how good it sounds. There is a level of clarity that lends further sincerity to the music without ever approaching the brickwalled overproduced nonsense that so many modern bands indulge in. It would be easy to overshoot it in the opposite direction, banking too hard on a lo-fi filthy trve kvlt aesthetic to really sell its authenticity. And while that certainly could work for old school death metal - which this absolutely is - Mr. Smith has chosen a more balanced approach instead: a mix that is convincingly gritty for the genre yet confidently allows every sound to speak for itself.
The second striking thing about this album is that it rules, hard. I am a firm believer that artists should be steadfast in their vision of art, just as much as I am a firm believer that we all make our own meaning. Many are more than happy to simply mimic bands that they like and I say more power to them, although for me simply being competent in that way is no longer engaging enough. Enter Resonant Filth. This guy doesn’t care about your formulas, he will make music that recalls all kinds of different old school acts and put it all together in a way that never feels like an imitation.
Opening track Aspirations’ slow roll and filthy tremz channel
Incantation nicely, before giving way to a more melodic Swedish approach in the second half. Disgusting Hypocrisy and Without Hope combine that with a bit of
Death’s Scream Bloody Gore to strong results. To Be Reborn leans quite heavily into the combination of churning filth and strange arcane riffs that defined Finnish cult classics like
Demigod,
Funebre and
Depravity. Departing and Dying Flames should sate the cravings of
Autopsy and
Obliteration fans rather nicely, while the closer Final Act Before Death is more of a condensed buffet of everything the album has to offer. It fits together and it doesn’t blend together, and that is no small feat.
Cannabis Corpse used to have a somewhat similar smorgasbord approach to death metal and it worked quite well at first before they ran out of ideas, but Depraved State is even better.
Every track feels like it breathes and develops naturally. Riffs weave in and out, guitar leads are tastefully used, beats and tempos change in ways that are just unpredictable enough. There’s fills aplenty yet they never distract, and in general every change helps prevent stagnation, repetition or overreliance on the same structures while at the same time never feeling pointless or meandering. The album shifts gears regularly without being dizzying and manages to remain surprisingly fresh every moment of the way. It’s no Gorguts, granted, but no matter how critical I want to be, this is simply better executed on almost every level than what your average band can do… and I’ve heard quite a few bands, average and otherwise. I don’t know what special sauce allows Mr. Smith to avoid the common pitfall of “you heard one song, you heard ‘em all” but it sure is working, and I sure am jealous. This is what any “throwback” or “worship” act should strive to be, production and aesthetic in service of the music, and let the music live and move on its own, merely guided not restrained by the footsteps of its predecessors. Life in death, if you will…
RIP John and Brandon.
