Decrepisy - Emetic Communion

Angry Metal Guy 60

A foot firmly stuck in thick, rancid muck. A foot that can only be wrenched free with herculean effort. An effort inevitably resulting in a loss of balance and a fall into aforementioned muck, hopelessly entrapping oneself. Death finds all men, and this increasingly dire scenario is akin to experiencing the filthy cavern-core offered by Decrepisy on their Emetic Communion debut. A group featuring members of Vastum, Funebrarum, and Ascended Dead, Decepisy is heavily steeped in the ways of vile, ghastly death and they inhabit the same sewer pipes as grimy greats like Incantation. With such a loathsome resume, you expect the band to bombard you with the worst sounds they can get their grubby claws on, and that’s exactly what they do for the 35 minutes of Emetic Communion. Seems they didn’t choose ugh life, ugh life chose them.

In a ballsy opening move, Decrepisy kick things off with the nearly 8-minute “Dissipating Form.” Material this repellant is usually best served short and sharp, but this is no ordinary group of waste management technicians. They make every second count as they drag you through the ugliest, most unclean corridors of unpleasantness. Thick, ungodly doom segments lead to blasty bursts of maniacal energy before it’s back to the slog and plod, sometimes without warning. It’s dizzying but effective and always heavy as unholy fook. It’s the kind of death metal that makes you crave a long shower and a tender disinfectant rubdown, but even then you won’t feel entirely fresh. The time passes shockingly fast though, accentuated by surprisingly tasteful, almost regal guitar solos that feel out of place but really work. Decrepisy show some skill in conducting this kind of long-form mental torture, shifting tempo and mood often enough to keep things from bogging down into tedium. They demonstrate this ability again on the 8-minute title track as chunky, propulsive riffs power the song along its unrelentingly ugly path, shifting between mid-tempo tank rumbles and massive doom segments. Riffs swirl and swarm like carnivorous insects and you’ll have to resist the urge to bat at them as you blast this godawful noise. It drags a bit near the end, but it’s a mostly successful lethal injection.

Emetic Communion by DECREPISY

With only 4 proper tracks making up the 35 minute album, the 10-plus minute centerpiece “Abbatoir of Sorrow” is the make or break moment. Here Decrepisy pull out all the stops, stents, IVs and heart valves for a nightmarish journey through the bowels of some unspeakable Lovecraftian monstrosity. Suffocating doom riffs crawl along the cavern floors, only to sprout extra appendages and scamper up the walls, leaving disgusting slime trails everywhere. Sub-basement death vocals struggle against the slithering, mutating leads and the whole spectacle is simply appalling. In other words, I love it. Could they hack 2 minutes off somewhere? Yes. Is it really good anyway? Yes again. It’s also the near-perfect soundtrack for being devoured by rats, if you’re in the market for that. Only “Embodied Decomposition” feels like a miss with good moments outweighed by generic Incantation tropes over a too long 6-plus minute grind. This stumble and the slight bloat issues elsewhere hit harder on a 4-track album, dragging it down a sizeable notch.

The odious guitar-work by Kyle House (Acephalix, ex-Vastum) and Jonathan Quintana (ex-Ascended Dead, ex-Ghoulgotha) is quite good. Their mammoth doom riffs are creepy and unsettling, and their fusion of Incantation and Bolt Thrower tricks is to be admired. The solos are out of this world – subslime and beautiful in a cold, distant way, and they stand out whenever they appear. House is also a gifted death metal vocalist well schooled in the Incantation / Disma / Funebrarum school of charred croaks. He sounds like some kind of wretched, accursed beast with terminal hemorrhoids and I mean that in the best possible way. Decrepisy is composed of wily scene vets and they nail the sound of primordial ooze level death, even if their writing sometimes misses the mark.

Emetic Communion is a noxious, toxic superfund site with feet firmly planted in the cesspool, intended to appeal to that niche demographic who hunt Tomb Mold like truffles. There are some brilliant moments here and a lot of potential in what they’re doing. I certainly enjoyed my time with the album, warts, boils, and all. This may not be a long album, but it sure is thick and filthy.¹

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Chaos Records / Life and Death / Seed of Doom
Websites: decrepisy.bandcamp.com/releases | facebook.com/decrepisy
Releases Worldwide: August 6th, 2021

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