Origin
Antithesis
Relapse
Gravity blasts up the wazoo
Let’s face it—death metal can’t get much faster or more technical. Now that Brain Drill, Psyopus and Atheretic have set Buckethead to blast beats, the only thing more “extreme” would be if Gibson invented a robot guitarist to play their robot guitar at 1,000 bpm. (Said guitarist would probably look like Chris Arp and get signed to Unique Leader.) In the meantime, though, I’ll take actual songs. Of all bands, Origin have songs now… sort of.
Three years have passed since Echoes of Decimation, a sweep-picking etude disguised as an album. I happen to enjoy finger-flaying accompanied by Motown-style three-vocalist death growls. Many don’t, though, and Origin have somewhat fallen off the radar. But after a slew of personnel changes, guitarist/mastermind Paul Ryan has reassembled the lineup from Echoes’ less sweep-y and more beloved predecessor, Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas.
Drummer John Longstreth is inhuman all right, with speed and precision verging on psychosis. But now the songs have air, if ever so slightly. “The Aftermath” tries out low-end chunkiness, while “Wrath of Vishnu” fires short machine gun bursts. The biggest surprise is the title track, the longest ever Origin song at nine-and-a-half minutes. It’s a crushing, half-speed march wreathed with black metal chords. Sweep picking is still aplenty, as “Algorithm” and “The Beyond Within” are basically audio heart attacks. But now you can actually tell the tracks apart, and hear the bass, to boot. You can have “bigger, faster, stronger”—I’ll take “better.” —Cosmo Lee
