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Severed Savior: Servile insurrection

28/11/08 || The Duff

I reviewed this band’s debut full-length, “Brutality is law”, and looking back now, it turns out I grossly overrated it. It was in hearing new track “Question” that, in being blown the fuck away, I decided to actually purchase said 2003 release as a warm-up exercise: if “Question” was any indication of this band’s talent, I figured Severed Savior could become one of my favourite bands. Turns out, just like Decrepit Birth before them (hence why I wrote that in the review, eh? Don’t even follow my own advice it would seem), the band has simply evolved from being a generic, nothing new brutal death band (yet without the technicality of their contemporaries, and probably the band’s much admired peers Deeds of Flesh, Decrepit Birth and Disgorge), into a technical death metal powerhouse that will, come November 25th, kick down your door and gutrape you via your face again and again.

Decrepit Birth’s last album, “Diminishing Between Worlds”, was something I was creaming over to be released, but once I got it, the production and no-heart soloing (more the phrasing if anything) left it a disappointing affair (don’t get me wrong, “Diminishing Between Worlds” is still a good album). This album, although not quite as technical, is what “DBW” should have been, as the production isn’t nearly as sickly (still going to get some clicky kick sound), making this type of music deliver on the heavy front; all the instruments are very clear too, with even the most furiously picked leads cutting through with resolute sharpness. Another reason for which this album succeeds where “DBW” failed is that the solos aren’t plastered all over the thing, and when they are brought out, they very tastefully add to the song, a trait brought through from the past album (the solos were remarkably well thought out on “Brutality is Law”), even if the tone is still slightly overbearing. Finally, this album is very well constructed arrangement-wise, whereas “DWB” had quite the cut and paste feel; although as an entire album the flow could be improved upon, each track on its own is about as strong as can be, with an identifiable overall structure but enough twists and turns to keep things interesting.

The music is best described as Cynic on speed, with the fast-delivery approach used by pioneers Deeds of Flesh; the jazzy interludes, though, although ingeniously construed, appear more to be a take on Cryptopsy’s music, where they cut in abruptly almost in jest. There’s even a cleanly-picked, folk section that is a dead-on imitation of “Still Life”/“Blackwater Park”-era Opeth, suggesting that the band isn’t so much being unorthodox, just having a blast writing whatever the fuck they feel like and seeing however it fits in with the heavier material, and it really works; although not one hundred percent complementary, it is definitely a colorful touch that brings some delicacy to the otherwise maelstrom of a disc.

There are a couple of drawbacks, but all are very minor. The band is still plaguing its albums with very simple, slow-paced riffing that would otherwise be considered a breakdown if it didn’t seem so out of place dragging on for so long and appearing like an integral part of a song; there isn’t much variety, even with the occasional atonal, erratically played chord or rapid-fire death riffs thrown in, as they all seem to play around the first three frets in true br00tal fashion. Another aspect I don’t much shine towards is at times they get overly technical, and it doesn’t fit in the slightest – picture brutal, fine ass shit technical death metal interspersed with dull fluid legato/picking runs popularized by bands like Beneath the Massacre; the talent’s there, but it gets old fast, and it’s a shame they couldn’t have kept the same theme running – keep it as intense as possible, even during the showier moments.

The band seems to have upped its game since the last album, but then they’ve had five years to develop as musicians; they’ve now risen into the upper echelons of insanely gifted bands, keeping each track trimmed of fat and making everything very compact and hit the listener in all the right places, and so to say they’ve created a perfect album wouldn’t be far off the mark if this style of death metal weren’t so expertly executed by so many other bands in the “hot-shit” pile (America are still behind with the rest of the world, but with bands like Severed Savior and Odious Mortem, things are looking up on the tech death front). On first listen, “Servile insurrection” will pass you by, but given time, all the tracks will take on a surprisingly complete, individual form replete with quality ideas, and you can’t ask for much more if you’re an avid fan of the sub-genre.

And for fuck, Pär Olofsson is too goddamned gifted; admire yet another fine piece of twisted beauty in the artwork.

8/10.

Information
Released: 2008
Label: Unique Leader
Website: www.severedsavior.com
Band
Anthony Trapani: vocals
Mike Guilbert: guitars
Murray Fitzpatrick: bass
Troy Fullerton: drums

Tracklist
01. Question
02. Inverted and inserted
03. Rewards of cruelty
04. Fuck the humans
05. Hemorrhagic gastroenteretis
06. Interval del tradimento
07. Acts of sedition
08. Fecalphiliac
09. Spoils of war
10. Deadspeak
11. Servile insurrection

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