Though
Oppressed is
Eciton's first cd, the group was actually formed in 2000 by musicians who have been in the death metal scene for many years. They had a few lineup problems after recording
Oppressed, a bass player who died and a drummer who left, but apparently
Eciton is still alive and kickin' since they were recently signed by the French label Adipocere Records. Hailing from Denmark, a country which has spawned several death metal bands over time,
Eciton has it's strengths but originality is not one of them.
After the 15-second opening speech,
Eciton kicks off with a brutality that is pretty consistent throughout the whole record. The guitar delivers standard death metal riffs most of the time, sometimes with a part that stands out but mostly it's just more of the same. It is probably not a big help that the vocals are even more monotonous than the guitar. Following the old school death metal growls, singer Jesper Bøeck has a deep and guttural growl that suits the music, yet adds to the monotonicity of the whole record. A few times he uses a more midrange scream which work pretty well. But the music would have to be more interesting to support these deep growls which get repetitive after some time.
One thing that could have helped create some diversity is solos.
Eciton has only one guitarist and for some reason he has put no solos on the record. I know that not all people like to listen to some guy's 30 seconds of fame in every song, but it does create some kind of break which
Eciton could really use here.
Gerenerally the production is fair, the drums are crispy and the guitars heavy with the vocals clear in the mix. Somehow the final cd has sort of a digital sound to it, and the it sounds a bit too compressed with a sound that's just too massive.
What we have here is nothing new.
Eciton consists of capable musicians who have produced a standard old school death metal cd with the clear footprint of several old american bands such as
Deicide and many more. They have chosen a path and they stick to it and in this way I must say it's one of the more consistent albums I have reviewed. A fan of old school death metal who don't want anything too fancy in his music like guitar solos, or too much variation should be happy with this one. But other metalheads who realize that there has been some progress since the 90s should look elsewhere. There is nothing wrong here, it's just that Oppressed could have been recorded 15 years ago. Hats off for
Eciton for staying true to their roots, but other than that, this is just a mediocre release.
Written by
Tajs Friday, December 9, 2005
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