Larvae - Demo
Larvae is from Oakland, California and the members have all been around the local Metal scene for a while. The band contains members of Kuru and Elk, and unlike their other bands, Larvae is Doom/Death Metal with an emphasis on the Death Metal side. The music is generally slower, though the last track, “Cold Dead Face,” is fast and aggressive. The band’s attempts at Doom are strangely lacking in heaviness. It may be the production or the fact that Larvae doesn’t sound very down-tuned, but they aren’t nearly as crushingly heavy as I had hoped that they would be. Personally, when I hear of an East Bay Doom/Death band, I think of Asunder. They were brutal as fuck, intensely heavy and in possession of some of the darkest atmospheres this side of My Dying Bride. That’s my standard for Bay Area Doom/Death Metal. It’s a high one, but I’m fairly forgiving when it comes to demo recordings and debut albums these days. Larvae sounds as if a Death Metal band was playing at half-speed while being recorded by a guy that only knew how to do Necro Black Metal. This definitely needs more bass. Death Metal, and Doom/Death in particular, needs to be brutal by default. Having a lightweight production defeats the purpose. The songs themselves are fairly well executed. The speed varies from ploddingly slow to fast and furious. This usually changes within one song, going from slow to fast to slow again. The riffs and song structures flow reasonably well, seamlessly going from fast to slow and back again without any jarring or transition problems. With a competent studio engineer and a heavier sound, these guys could be a force to be reckoned with.
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