Derogatory - Above All Else
Four guys from Los Angeles founded a band in 2010 and called it Derogatory and in 2013 they released their debut-album "Above All Else" on FDA Rekotz. Eight songs, ca. 40 minutes. And now this album is in my CD-Player. Normally FDA Rekotz guaranteed for hard music and so I’m tensed what will be coming out of my loudspeakers. And yes, fast and hard. At first an old school intro for a minute or so and after that a full death-metal-broadside from the early 90’s or late 80’s like Morbid Angel, Pestilence and Nile. I wondered briefly, looked at the cover again and the font of the band and later this time I was seventeen again. And I asked myself what I thought when I was seventeen about bands like Morbid Angel, Pestilence and so on and I compared this debut-album from Derogatory with the bands from that time.
At first, everything is made for this time I think, everything fits together, font, cover, music, sound. Now some more precise, the sound is exact like the early 90’s, bassdrum, guitars, bass and voice. Nothing is new in this sound. It seems that this recording must be made with an old tape machine. Especially the bassdrum is very noisy and predominate a little bit the guitars. And sometimes you hear something that can be toms or so but its not more like bum bum than toms. And I mean that the drummer is unstable in playing doublebass sometimes. The guitarist knows how to strike their instruments and so there are really good and hard riffs and some nice solos on board. There are many speed changes, and changes in the riffing this shows that there is a potential and efforts in the band to make the songs diversified. For example in the song 'Above All Else' I counted at least eight different complex riffs. Every song is like that more or less and the timelength of the songs in average is ca. 3:45 min and this is the early 80’s way too. Also the voice of frontman and guitarist Chris Ordonez is like the voices of the early 80’s.
It seems that at the moment there is a renaissance for old school death metal and this album goes absolutely in this direction very authentic and direct. This is cool and nice and a good idea for a moment but not more. If I want to hear music from the 80’s I hear an album from that time! New bands should make something new I think. To play like old bands, to play like someone you adore is nice but it’s not interesting.
And in my opinion the debut-albums from bands like Morbid Angel, Death or Orbituary were much much better than Derogatory’s. Cause the songs were too complex without a red line. The songs are too diffuse, everything is too vague as I would say that the songs will be in mind. And now I heard it three or for times for this review. This is enough for me and you can be sure that I will never hear this album after this review, sorry guys.
The album is not a must-have, interesting may be for death-metal-completists or underground new discoverers or someone who stucks in the 80’s.
At first, everything is made for this time I think, everything fits together, font, cover, music, sound. Now some more precise, the sound is exact like the early 90’s, bassdrum, guitars, bass and voice. Nothing is new in this sound. It seems that this recording must be made with an old tape machine. Especially the bassdrum is very noisy and predominate a little bit the guitars. And sometimes you hear something that can be toms or so but its not more like bum bum than toms. And I mean that the drummer is unstable in playing doublebass sometimes. The guitarist knows how to strike their instruments and so there are really good and hard riffs and some nice solos on board. There are many speed changes, and changes in the riffing this shows that there is a potential and efforts in the band to make the songs diversified. For example in the song 'Above All Else' I counted at least eight different complex riffs. Every song is like that more or less and the timelength of the songs in average is ca. 3:45 min and this is the early 80’s way too. Also the voice of frontman and guitarist Chris Ordonez is like the voices of the early 80’s.
It seems that at the moment there is a renaissance for old school death metal and this album goes absolutely in this direction very authentic and direct. This is cool and nice and a good idea for a moment but not more. If I want to hear music from the 80’s I hear an album from that time! New bands should make something new I think. To play like old bands, to play like someone you adore is nice but it’s not interesting.
And in my opinion the debut-albums from bands like Morbid Angel, Death or Orbituary were much much better than Derogatory’s. Cause the songs were too complex without a red line. The songs are too diffuse, everything is too vague as I would say that the songs will be in mind. And now I heard it three or for times for this review. This is enough for me and you can be sure that I will never hear this album after this review, sorry guys.
The album is not a must-have, interesting may be for death-metal-completists or underground new discoverers or someone who stucks in the 80’s.
- Intro
- Into The Depth Of Time
- Cryopreservation
- Above All Else
- Immortal Divine
- Foretold In My House Of Seance
- Cenotaph
- Twisted Aeons Of Burning Galaxy
- To Escape What Is Now
Label: http://www.fda-rekotz.com
Reviewer: Rolf
Dec 31, 2013
Dec 31, 2013
Next review:
Bloodspot - By The Horns
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