...And Time Begins
General
| Nov 2003
Reviews
Orges
Reviewed 2003-11-17
Reviewed 2003-11-17
Decrepit Birth - ...And Time Begins (Unique Leader)
How come I never heard of Unique Leader until this week when I reviewed three of their releases, all of which are changing my perception of reality. All three bands (Deeds of Flesh, Psycroptic, and these guys) laugh in the face of conventional music (you know, the ability to hum a tune, or whistle along to a melody), with Decrepit Birth straight out making a mockery of it. First of all, it’s got Tim Yeung on drums, which is to say, they had an army battalion fire their automatic assault rifles for about 30 minutes straight (the length of the CD), recorded it, and then used that as the drum track. The guy is so sharp and flawless he really does sound like a machine at times. The guitars are mostly palm-muted, but they sound so wicked! The sounds that Matt Sotelo can get from those chords, and those runs, are just unbelievable; true fret master. The songs are heavy, mostly short and to the point, and have a dark feel to them, which also goes along well with the story they’re trying to tell in the lyrics. That will do you no good, though, since you won’t be able to make out anything they say. On the other hand, the production is pretty clear, and the music itself is pretty much genre-defining. This is the debut album of the year, no doubt about it. Here’s what really stood out:
1) Quite the opener, nice and short, but necessarily so, because anything longer woulda killed me.
2) More of the same, with some crazy drumming that goes everywhere all at once and guitar squeals from hell.
3) Excellent bass riff, and staccato vocal delivery.
5) More guitar squeals and semi-solo runs, and then some craaaaazy vocals.
7) One of the longest songs here, and it shows that these guys were striving for something nice and dark and beautiful. And they succeeded.
8) Instrumental, with creepy layered vocal samples. Huge chords over unbelievable drumming, non-stop double bass madness, sick!
9) Last song, and it’s an epic of immense proportions, finishing up their awesome story, with more crazy drumming and vocals and palm-muted guitars and bass, and all that fun stuff. Warning. It ends after 4 minutes, and then it’s just 5 minutes of weird ambient noises, so fade down in time.
Orges Beqiri 11-15-2003
How come I never heard of Unique Leader until this week when I reviewed three of their releases, all of which are changing my perception of reality. All three bands (Deeds of Flesh, Psycroptic, and these guys) laugh in the face of conventional music (you know, the ability to hum a tune, or whistle along to a melody), with Decrepit Birth straight out making a mockery of it. First of all, it’s got Tim Yeung on drums, which is to say, they had an army battalion fire their automatic assault rifles for about 30 minutes straight (the length of the CD), recorded it, and then used that as the drum track. The guy is so sharp and flawless he really does sound like a machine at times. The guitars are mostly palm-muted, but they sound so wicked! The sounds that Matt Sotelo can get from those chords, and those runs, are just unbelievable; true fret master. The songs are heavy, mostly short and to the point, and have a dark feel to them, which also goes along well with the story they’re trying to tell in the lyrics. That will do you no good, though, since you won’t be able to make out anything they say. On the other hand, the production is pretty clear, and the music itself is pretty much genre-defining. This is the debut album of the year, no doubt about it. Here’s what really stood out:
1) Quite the opener, nice and short, but necessarily so, because anything longer woulda killed me.
2) More of the same, with some crazy drumming that goes everywhere all at once and guitar squeals from hell.
3) Excellent bass riff, and staccato vocal delivery.
5) More guitar squeals and semi-solo runs, and then some craaaaazy vocals.
7) One of the longest songs here, and it shows that these guys were striving for something nice and dark and beautiful. And they succeeded.
8) Instrumental, with creepy layered vocal samples. Huge chords over unbelievable drumming, non-stop double bass madness, sick!
9) Last song, and it’s an epic of immense proportions, finishing up their awesome story, with more crazy drumming and vocals and palm-muted guitars and bass, and all that fun stuff. Warning. It ends after 4 minutes, and then it’s just 5 minutes of weird ambient noises, so fade down in time.
Orges Beqiri 11-15-2003
Recent airplay
Thought Beyond Infinity
The Sun Never Sets On Cool — Feb 23, 2005
Rebirth of Consciousness
The Sun Never Sets On Cool — Jan 26, 2005
...And Time Begins
Les Chevaux De Frise — Aug 19, 2004
Thought Beyond Infinity
Dolce! — Feb 05, 2004
Concepting the Era of Genoci
Dolce! — Jan 15, 2004
...And Time Begins
Stirling's Eclectica — Jan 08, 2004
Charting
2003-12-08 — 2004-02-09
Loud
| Week Ending | Airplays |
|---|---|
| Feb 8 | 1 |
| Jan 18 | 1 |
| Jan 11 | 1 |
| Dec 14 | 1 |
Track listing
| 1. | Prelude to the Apocalypse | ||
| 2. | Condemned to Nothingness | ||
| 3. | Thought Beyond Infinity | ||
| 4. | The Infestation | ||
| 5. | Rebirth of Consciousness | ||
| 6. | Shroud of Impurity | ||
| 7. | Concepting the Era of Genoci | ||
| 8. | ...And Time Begins |