The old school death metal revival burgeons as profusely as ever. Countless buzzsaws, endless riff salads, and innumerable gravelly roars populate the landscape of the genre, with only the occasional differentiation to be found in the gene pool. Yet, we metalheads at large eat it right up. From aesthetics all the way down to engineering, albums released under the OSDM umbrella use and abuse a long-standing formula way past its expiration date, and still bangers abound. This, interestingly, makes the field an especially challenging one in which to excel. Staten Island’s newest old-school death quintet, Festergore, place their first bid in the pot with their debut Constellation of Endless Blight. Is endless blight fatal enough?
If you’ve heard anything from Cannibal Corpse, Rotpit, earlier Tomb Mold, or the more energetic side of Incantation, you know exactly how Festergore sounds. Chunky riffs, big grooving rhythms and beats, and vomiting vocals litter the record with a total disrespect for their surroundings. This is the way it should be. That’s the way it is. Constellation of Endless Blight houses no surprises nor twists, no novelties nor nuance. Meat and potatoes is the only item on the menu, and for what it’s worth, everything is prepared by the book with unflappable consistency.
Constellation Of Endless Blight by FESTERGORE
Reliability is a virtue, and Festergore’s debut record is nothing if not reliable as far as sound and execution are concerned. Top bangers “Ironborn,” “SMA,” and “What Once Was Proud” excel in their delivery of properly crafted death, yet each take their own course to that satisfying result. “Ironborn” dabbles in the doom-tinged Incantationanigans of olde, but supplements them with a punkier Master personality to give the whole extra oomph. “SMA” is just pure Cannibal Corpse filth, boasting excellent riffcraft and an infinitely repeatable lyrical phrase, “DIE, DIE, DIE WITH YOUR EYES OPEN.” Closer “What Once Was Proud” possesses the same kind of grooving swagger as Tomb Mold’s material usually does, though simplified for maximum headbangability. In all these examples and others, the greatest rewards come from living and listening in the moment, as there is absolutely nothing that can stop this runaway train of killer riffs sourced from the tried and the true.
Unfortunately, that adherence to influence renders Constellation of Endless Blight predictable and derivative. By the time “The View from Halfway Down” passes by, the initial thrill of great riffs and infectious rhythms starts fading out of focus. In its place, the persistent vague impression that I’ve heard every note of this record before. “Surrender to Madness” and “Cryogenic Display,” for example, lose a lot of their charm simply by mimicking the charm of at least two of the aforementioned reference points at a time. While stitching together an amalgam of techniques perfected by great bands is a respectable way to enter a crowded field, I crave something more creative that Constellation of Endless Blight simply can’t deliver. Furthermore, the inclusion of not one, but two fluffy instrumental interludes on a thirty-three-minute record just feels cheap. It’s not enough to totally ruin the experience—after all, four minutes of disposable waste product will never be enough to taint a full twenty-nine minutes of ripping tuneage in my house—but it is enough to mildly annoy me until the next track beats my battered face against another curb.
Constellation of Endless Blight is more than a competent execution of a well-worn style of death. It is also, on the other hand, built almost entirely out of other band’s building blocks. I don’t mean to imply that Festergore have committed plagiarism of any sort. They haven’t. But the lack of creativity I can detect out of this seven-song (I am subtracting those interludes) lineup disappointed me in the end. Constellation of Endless Blight offers a lot of bang for the buck if the buyer is already a fan of the style. I definitely fit into that demographic. However, as a work of art, it lacks a distinct identity to help it stand out from an undoubtedly overpopulated crowd.
Rating: Mixed
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Personal Records
Websites: festergore.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/profile.php
Releases Worldwide: November 29th, 2024
The post Festergore – Constellation of Endless Blight Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.
