Prophecy
Foretold... Foreseen
7.4
Just what the Doctor ordered.
In 1998, Suffocation sort of passed US death metal’s waning flag to Dying Fetus as they released Killing on Adrenaline, an album that helped kick start an ailing genre. At the time, the list of Suffocation sounding bands were pretty endless (part of the reason for the band’s hiatus and the scenes saturation), but Dying Fetus happened to be the best of the bunch passing over the likes of Deeds of Flesh, Pyrexia, Devourment, Dehumanized and Texas’s Prophecy. Originally released on Corpse Gristle Records that same year , Foretold…Foreseen was lost in the post Suffocation scramble for US supremacy and Gorgiastic Records now allows you to hear one of the better, unheralded examples of the genre. You can gauge this record’s merit by the fact that backing vocals are performed by some of today’s more influential folks; Erik Lindmark. (Deeds of Flesh), Jason Netherton. (Dying Fetus/Misery Index), John Gallagher (Dying Fetus) and Braxton Henry (ex-Devourment).
If you’ve heard any of Dying Fetus’s early material, Dehumanized’s Prophecies Foretold or Pyrexia’s Sermon of Mockery, you know what you are getting here; a pretty slam heavy dose of dirty New York styled death metal. Although re-mastered it still retains that grimy 1998 sound, and there’s nothing remotely original on display here, it is still a neck snapping effort none the less. Ridiculously low pit bull growls, feverish screams, staccato chaos and lots and lots of thick churning grooves is the signature of this nice little throwback album, so those looking for inhuman intricacies fraught with polyrhythmic arpeggios and a polished production had better look elsewhere.
The classic death metal acoustic intro of “Core of Depression” sets the tone before the expected rumble eventually kicks in and James Parks begins the burping over down tuned riffs and some hefty breakdowns. The blast beats are effectively simple, not Origin or anything like that, just good old fashioned death metal fervor. The songs are pretty long for brutal death metal with opener clocking in at 8 minutes, both “Human Atrocity” and “Inner Reality” are over six minutes and “Prophecy” at ten minutes (three minutes of silence and hidden track included), but they don’t drag on as I found myself waiting for the next huge lurching slower segment. There are some shorter tracks like “Feasting on the Flesh” which is a short direct stab wound with some Autopsy like droning and “Assembled by Death” featuring some lo-fi but energetic solos.
The album’s production, although mastered is still fairly retro with muffled guitars and overemphasized rhythm section, but it still sounds powerful especially during the lumbering, classically structured breakdowns. While Gorgiastic did redo the artwork and layout, the awfully produced bonus track ends the album awkwardly with some terrible vocal FX instead of the rather likeable barks/burps.
Gorgiastic had to go 8 years back to do it, but they’ve released something worthwhile, and Foretold…Foreseen is actually re-issue worth re-releasing, but I’m not sure if the band's planned reunion album and DVD can capture this kind of primal energy again.
