originally written by Chris McDonald
Containing only two original tracks and three covers, Dawn of Demise’s new EP doesn’t exactly offer a lot of bang for your buck. This wouldn’t matter so much if the music on hand was worth your time, but alas, the band fails to really deliver on this end as well.
The two original tracks offer a highly derivative form of groove/blast death metal, and the meaty production and campy vocals can’t save the material itself from the realms of mediocrity. “Extinction Seems Immenent” opens things with a painfully generic half-tempo groove before lurching into the expected mix of blastbeats and palm-muting, and “Ridden With Disgust” pretty much does the same thing, just in a different order. The musicianship is very tight and there are a couple of moments when the band gets a pretty cool throwback-Suffocation thing going on, but with both tracks barely exceeding the four-minute mark, it isn’t anywhere near enough juice to make Laceration worth a purchase, or even a cursory listen.
The three covers (of Suffocation’s “Infecting the Crypts,” AtThe Gates’ “Blinded By Fear,” and Obituary’s “Turned Inside Out”) are all fun diversions, especially the brutal interpretation of At the Gates’ melodic thrashing. Still, if you’re interested in this band I’d recommend checking out their full-length Hate Takes Its Form instead, as the brevity of this release and the ho-hum nature of the songwriting makes this EP hard to justify spending any time or money on.
