Review Summary: A face-melting blend of familiar and unknown.
Dead Soma is a three-piece mathcore/grind band from Sweden who have released their impressive debut LP, Pathos. The band does a great job of combining the familiar chaotic and relentless style of mathcore with electronic and progressive elements. The end result of this concoction is a collection of immensely enjoyable heavy but novel songs.
Simply put, if you are a fan of the jackhammer, noise terror, head for the storm shelter type of mathcore, then you’re going to have a blast with this. However, the album shines due to the fact that it isn’t just a dumb, downtuned slog. The aforementioned genre mixing ensures the album holds up upon repeat listens and separates itself from the plethora of heavy bands that play this general style of music.
The crystal-clear production on the release serves its purpose. Every bite, scratch, and screech is penetrating and punishing. Every extreme and nuance will not go unnoticed. The majority of the songs have a disjointed but deliberate structure that still somehow end up catchy and memorable. This is due to the fact that most tracks have some distinctive DNA, whether it be unpredictable tempo changes, electronic and glitch components, progressive passages, or interjections of clean vocals. The bulk and foundation of this album is still primarily a ruthless beatdown. Track 2, Molecular Temperature, showcases what you can expect from the album. Riffs trample and stampede over each other to see which one can maim you first, but there is reprieve with relatively more melodic sections scattered to let you recover. Both are enjoyable and balance each other out well.
Ironically, some of the shortest, more grind oriented songs, Candor and Error Blemish, have the most evolution and progression packed within them. Candor is two minutes of terror, containing a blistering intro, drum and bass section, and a slower breakdown all in that span of time. Error Blemish is another punch to the face but has electronic passages that serve as captivating bridges to get you excited and build for the next avalanche of sound about to rain down on you.
There are hardly any duds on this album except perhaps for Scanner. The track starts with an intriguing creepy electronic hook but takes a left turn and bombards you with a djent riff that drives the song. The groove is certainly fun and heavy, but lacks the proper dynamic songwriting to make it one of the better songs on the album. Its simplicity loses your interest quickly because it doesn’t grow from the starting point.
Thankfully, in an album as barbaric as this there are some inclusions of melody and softer palettes. For Your Time begins with layered, crushing riffs and unnerving electronic bleeps and bloops. Over the course of the song it smoothly transitions from a menacing, sinister atmosphere to a euphoric one with soaring melodic vocals and guitars. This song is the most well-written and multi-faceted on the release. Life And Limb is a simple, melancholy interlude that gives you a single minute to breathe before being yanked back into chaos.
Dysfunctional Defect is a personal favorite. The song is oozing with groovy chugs that will raise your testosterone and light up your caveman brain upon listening. Pathos, the title track and album closer, is epic at nine minutes. It justifies this length with an abundance of interesting and well executed sections. There are primal industrial textures, panic riffs, along with progressive and softer experimental electronic segments.
Pathos is at its best when mixing the skull-crushing riffage, electronic/glitch elements, and melodic progressive ideas. When a song is devoted to strictly one of these areas, it suffers. Don’t let this deter you though, even the simpler tracks are bound to satisfy mathcore/grind heathens. I can’t wait for more music from these guys.
Recommended Songs: Carbon Blue, Molecular Temperature, Candor, For Your Time, Chronos, Life And Limb, Error Blemish, Pathos
