Despite forming in 2005 and having a demo out as early as 2008, Paramnesia is the first proper full-length from Australian death metallers Altars. Over this time, the band has honed its sound to an instantly appealing hybrid of some of the more revered and bottom-feeding all-time greats. The first impression is of a muddy, less adventurous Morbid Angel, complete with slow-headbang-over-rapid-double-bass passages and plenty of Trey Azagthothian riffage. An equal affinity for the more chaotic of Immolation‘s material is quickly apparent, tossing in plenty of dissonant lines and right hand flutters, but again interpreted through a somewhat murky reflection.
And the band executes this sound expertly, thanks in no small part to the chameleonesque drum skills of Alan Cadman and more-than-ordinary dry vocal gurgling. The problem on Paramnesia, however, is that Altars has clearly spent more time squaring in on their sound and identity than they have on their songcraft, and the result is an album that meanders nearly as often as it thrills, never doing anything outright bad, but drifting into the background when it should be going in for the kill.
This tendency to meander most often affects the album’s three lengthy songs, which at a total of over 25 minutes make up more than half of the total running time. “Khaz’neh” uses a slow and mid-paced intro to maximize the effectiveness of the Vigna-ish hook and thumping chorus, but quickly reveals itself to have a confused direction, muddling around for much of its remaining length. Similarly, “Solar Barge” starts out with a bang and a blast, feeling like a beast of a track until it becomes apparent that it is a killer five-minute song unnecessarily stretched out to eight. Closer “Ouroboros” – the finale of the album’s title track trilogy – is actually packed with cool parts (that filthy doom riff towards the end just owns), but fails to feel like a cohesive climax to an album that really seems to beg for a holistic arc.
Where the band finds much greater success is in the shorter tracks, which really only differ from the longer tunes in that they aren’t stuffed with filler in some attempt to attain “epic” status. “Husk” crosses the full spectrum of the Altars sound in under four minutes, while the first part of the trilogy, “Descent,” wins big by bringing the wildness that so much of the album teases at but never delivers. Further suggesting that the band needs to trim the fuck down is the sub-90-seconds “Terse,” which may actually be the album’s best track with its instantly addictive thump-to-blast-to-thump-to-blast-to-thump-to-blast-to-dissonant-hook theme.
While this material certainly elevates the longer, seemingly confused songs on Paramnesia, it can’t do all of the work. However, because the Altars sound is so damn appealing, many listeners will likely quite enjoy the album (and want to enjoy it even more than that), but the memory of it quickly fades after the riffs have passed. The band simply needs more work sharpening their compositional skills before they can put together an album better than “above average.” But perhaps that is their call, to play heavy, often infectious death metal with a top notch just-muddy-enough production and just have fun with it. Far worse groups have kept their careers going on for ages with such a mentality, so why not Altars?
