MONSTROSITY - Passage of Existence Review

MONSTROSITY - Passage of Existence

Metal Blade Records

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It's been a long while since MONSTROSITY released a full-length album. But it definitely was worth the wait in gold. This isn't a "typical" death metal album.  The production quality was not the greatest, though. It sounded a bit flat. But that doesn't take away from the magic of the album. Almost 60 minutes of pure awesome riff-tastic songs. I don't think that there's a song on here that I didn't like. The reason is the music is really fresh and noteworthy. They play fast and technical, the music just grapples you. It really makes a difference when you're hearing brand new different sounds as well as vocals.

There are blast beats on here, not so much grindcore but just fast tempos. The leads are good as well. Nicely executed and by design. One thing these guys don't do is compromise in songwriting style. With this one, they've copied very little from the past and are reborn, so to speak. It's great to hear them back in action. They really have the time off from writing and out came this release. It's not like 'In Dark Purity' or 'Rise To Power'. They've evolved into their own. It could be a lineup change. Whatever it is/was they're on the return to death metal composition. I liked this album the first time I heard it. My first impression was like: "hmm, new and fresh."

A hint of the old MONSTROSITY lurks in there but most of the recording is atypical for them. I think that they've really expanded on their death metal musically and have a host of variable rhythm guitar work. The leads are quite good, too. The vocals switch off from low growling to higher end screams. There's so much variety on here it's amazing. It makes you want to think if they'll keep evolving. I sure hope so because where they stand there are no boundaries to their musical genre. They should not duplicate what's on here, just keep on changing it up. That's fine with me because you hear something different every listen to.

Get the album on Spotify first. Then choose whether or not you really want to benefit the band for their creation. Buy the physical CD!! I would say that in summation, this album is nothing but miraculous in the death metal department. They have returned! So praise that, and support their music. They really have a lot to offer the death metal community and now they've done their genre a great deal of justice. No just a good release, but a GREAT release. They've baffled me totally. I wasn't ready for something so profound musically yet I have not checked the lyrical content of the album. Best to stick with the music. A great return to an amazing band!

Ryan “Death8699” Fanucchi