Horrid Mass – Nauseating Ecstatic Degeneration (Stygian Death Metal)

 

Sometimes, death metal bands get way too verbose. I suppose it’s a method for hiding a lack of skill. It’s like a thing, or rather a trope, that’s been around for ages now, and at this point it’s more of a trick to avoid the obvious fact that most band suck. Toss in some medical terms, pull out the thesaurus, sound vaguely academic, while still disgusting, and you’ve got the presentation down (minus the art). But it takes a certain level of skill to extend that into the sound, and most bands fail in that regard. Triteness abounds in the genre because tropes are easy to use, but only acts like Horrid Mass understand the history and sound enough to build upon what’s always been there, without relying on stagnancy.

   

You get picked up by a big label, or two in this case, with only a single demo in your track record, and you’re probably doing at least a little better than most. Nauseating Ecstatic Degeneration is more than most, it’s mostly most. The first noticeable feature in this one is the opulence that permeates it. This may seem a strange term for a death metal album critique, but this is what we have; the guitars, the bass, the drums, and certainly the vocals, come with a specific density and resonance that creates a rather stygian experience. Gloomy, yet hellish, Horrid Mass are now set to rise above the masses out there (get it?), in a fashion that should hopefully kill off all affectation in genre, or at least move it on that path. We need it.

 

Horrid Mass Official Instagram

Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls

Horrid Mass – Glints from the Crematorium
Memento Mori, Night Terrors Records
Cover Art: Tony Capodilupo
4.5 / 5