Banishment
Cleansing The Infirm
5.6
As tempting as it was to cut and paste my review of Condemned’s Desecrate the Vile, change some song titles and be done with it, the fact is, while a virtually identically styled release (both in presentation and music), California’s Banishment is a little better.
No doubt soon to reside on Unique Leader Records after this Lacerated Enemy Records debut, Banishment would be a perfect fit on Unique Leader: pinch harmonic filled, guttural, clichéd brutality and even though titles like “Maelstorm Of Restless Indignation” (though a pointless intro), “Translucent Birth Of Iniquity” and “Scourge Under Imperial Treachery” try to make you believe Banishment is a little deeper fare, the fact is they really aren’t. What they are however, is a typical American brutal death metal band; a Suffocation backbone of technicality and savage shreddage wrapped up with cavernous vocals and many a groovy slowdown, but simply without the dynamics or presence of their peers.
To their credit, Banishment’s material isn’t quite as dull or gutturally forced as Desecrate the Vile, as there is a slightly more prevalent lean to the band's more intricate state mates (Odious Mortem, Severed Savior), but a muddy, holly production and stale vocal assault from Imer Arnautowitch sweeps any competence and envelope pushing elements squarely under the brutal death metal rug.
Tracks like “Translucent Birth Of Iniquity,” “Obscure Benevolence” and “Shroud of Infamy,” while fulfilling all the genre requirements with competence in spades, simply don’t deliver anything that warrants too much attention beyond the realms of brutal death metal die hards, but if Condemned can get a bland 2007 album re-issued on Unique Leader, I see no reason why Banishment shouldn’t have the same type of predictable, rudimentary impact on the genre despite their shortcomings.
