Eciton
Oppressed
6.1
Lo and behold, I’m in charge of reviewing yet another contender in the Mp3 War and, from what I can tell, Eciton aren’t going to win this round. Hell, even I didn’t vote for them. What the full-length Oppressed is, though, is a thirty-five minute slab of death metal that treads the line between brutality and regularity. Oddly enough, it seems this Danish quartet owes gratuity to a few North American contemporaries such as Deicide, Kataklysm, and the like.
By now, you’ve probably become acclimated to “Butchering the Helpless,” which finds itself as the opening number. Here, Eciton (formerly known as Indespair) cruise along at a comfortable speed, but still shift into overdrive with their Kataklysm-esque riffage and subsequent chunkiness. Boeck’s vox are what one can expect from this particular style: deep, guttural, unintelligible, unremarkable-yet-fitting. Sometimes, as is the case with death and black metal, I begrudge not being able to understand the vocalist. But, after deciphering a few lines of “Cynical Exploitation of Mankind,” I’m not so sure I want to understand what Boeck is saying.
As far as instrumentation is concerned, all the performers on Oppressed play well. However, there’s a definite shortage of idiosyncratic musicianship, and I couldn’t help but desire some differentiation in order to liven things up. Mostly, Eciton seem bent upon penning standard death metal. Adipocere Records does indeed house better groups, and one such group is the recently reviewed Mind Ripper.
Like I said earlier, Eciton are seemingly undecided about whether they want to be categorized as brutal death metal or not. Parts of Oppressed are simply unforgiving, while others are intrinsically melodic – but still retain a shadowy nature about them. The length is also a major detractor; I don’t foresee myself paying upwards of $15 for something that lasts slightly longer than half an hour. Again, I hate to harp on it, if I want to listen to something more brutal, I’ll pull out the latest from Disgorge. If I want death metal done oh-so-right, I’ll summon The Chasm. There’s not a lot of room for these blokes in such a dog-eat-dog subgenre.
