Erytrosy - Delight (2001)

Sex and brain surgery. These seem to be two of the lyrical fascinations of Erytrosy's 2001 sophomore Delight. A strange album title when one considers the sounds on display, and an even stranger cover image for the death metal genre; but hey, if it were any indicator that the band was moving in a more experimental direction after their rather standard (if ahead of the curve) brutal death debut Incomplete Minds, then it would have my full support. Sadly, not only does Delight fail to mix up the aesthetics of its predecessor, but after five years, one might have been justified in having higher expectations...than this. The Slovakians have spun off into a brand of brutal, grind-tinted death metal that is far less interesting, and ultimately a banal exercise in futile, dime a dozen riffs.

You've basically got your standard 4xchug -> tremolo burst intensity here, which grows quite old in a very short time. I guess a good comparison would be Napalm Death's 90s output, with a bit of Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse and Internal Bleeding thrown in, but Erytrosy is not quite as riffy. In fact, you could pay me to listen to this album a few dozen times and I would have a hard time remembering a single chord progression, that's how generic and below the radar this music is. The vocals sound a bit more like Mark 'Barney' Greenway than they did on the debut; not that they were unique on the debut, but this style has always tended to bore me after a few lines, and it's just another of the underwhelming factors in what makes Delight such an also-ran. I can't exactly fault the band's aggression level here, because some of the spastic death/thrash punchlines they weave off the chug-chug setups are appreciably nimble, but the notes played seemed to just have been safely snatched from whatever first idea comes to mind. There's not a heck of a lot of 'musicality' here aside from men playing death metal on instruments. The lead sequences are intensified, but not enough to save the rhythms leading up to them...

The album also sounds like arse, and in fact it seems as if even the limited budget of the debut might have been floundered away. Guitars are brasher and noisier, and the drums have a lot more crash and burn to them. But both the treble and bass dynamics of the rhythm guitar seem out of step, and it honestly sounds like a well rigged live performance or a demo than a studio effort. Compiled with the lackluster songwriting that seems like a step back from the brutal aerobics of Incomplete Minds, it becomes a difficult disc to sit through for more than a few minutes. There's just nothing of interesting occurring anywhere. No highlights, no riffs that urge me to strain my neck in response. Yeah, the bass playing still gets busy, and sounds decent against the other instruments; and the 26 minute play length ensures that it's not a whole lot of material to become exhausted with. It's not necessarily an 'awful' album, or an abject failure, but it's difficult to justify when there were by 2001 about 15 years of great death metal records to pore over. I'd take the Slovakians' debut over this any day, and I don't blame them for putting the group on an indefinite hiatus after this.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

Erytrosy - Incomplete Minds (1996)

Considering their instant, automatic appeal to the not-always-so-picky brutal death metal audience, I'm surprised Slovakia's Erytrosy is not brought up in more conversations regarding their chosen niche. After all, by the mid 90s, successful acts like Suffocation, Deicide and Cannibal Corpse were still generating traction in the underground. Cryptopsy was just getting out its smashing sophomore None So Vile that would prove so influential. Bands like Dying Fetus and Deeds of Flesh were releasing their debut full-lengths this same year. It all boils down to the fact that this was simply coming out of an obscure market, perhaps not readily available to anyone who wasn't specifically searching for it. Not that the Slovakians were bringing anything to the table that you couldn't have heard from a combination of the above, but Incomplete Minds is quite a tight, prescient, 'complete' package that I think a lot of today's young thugs might enjoy checking out.

This is essentially a very balanced mesh of old and new school techniques that struck right about the same time that the notion of a 'brutal death metal' subdivision was taking off. Loads of surgical, chugging patterns span a number of octaves, while you've got the requisite palm mute to squeal ratio and a lot of pure tremolo picked progressions that felt more archaic. The general tempo of the music is heavily reminiscent of the first four Cannibal Corpse records, with that same death/thrash zeal; but I heard quite a lot of riffs redolent of Effigy of the Forgotten. The chugging was also similar to Deicide's eponymous debut or its followup, Legion, but even more dynamic. Incomplete Minds features a lot of abrupt shifts in tempo, from middle paced grooves to steady blasting, but I can't say that they always feel important or intelligent; rather just an attempt to bewilder the listener into the precision with which the musicians can bounce back and forth while maintaining a consistent, pummeling clamor that makes only a tangential use of melody and atmosphere. A few lighter, progressive passages are strewn through the landscape (like the intro to "Ancient Structure of Endoparasites"), probably evidence of a Death/Cynic/Pestilence influence, but they're exceptions.

Unfortunately, like a lot of the earlier material from bands like Deeds of Flesh, Suffocation, Lividity or Internal Bleeding, I felt as if the production here was rather dry. The bass and treble of the distorted rhythm guitar doesn't generate much of a dichotomy, just a muddling percussion with enough clarity to distinguish the individual note patterns. Leads have a bit of airiness, but are likewise too straightforward to condition the bridges and melodies with an appreciable atmosphere. The drumming is fucking crazy, with ample use of the double bass drums for both blasting and slower paces, but I though the cymbals were rather mundane, the snare a bit too poppy, and the bass drum and guitar often intersperse with one another too their detriment. That said, the bassist is excellent here, offering great contrast to the melodies and enough volume that you could just follow him through most of the album. The vocals are a flat, guttural alternative to Frank Mullen or Craig Pillard, but you'll occasionally get this salacious, alien snarl that pokes through their syllabic bluntness. Nothing unique, but effective enough thanks to the constant riff transitions.

I though the industrial/ambient intro and outro pieces were too close to one another; on one hand it creates a sense of consistency and completion, mirrored bookends, but since Erytrosy doesn't engage in this sort of content through the death metal itself, they feel somewhat alienated. Would have been better to include more of this through the slower groove sections. Incomplete Minds also lacks truly engrossing riff composition; the patterns were fairly fresh for their time, but there are few 'money shots' where the guitars reach an orgasmic level of mutilation and inspiration. Probably another reason, aside from its relative obscurity, that this didn't dial the Slovakians onto the international underground radar grid quite as loudly as their US or European contemporaries. All told, though, this is a tight and reasonably ambitious debut album, which lives up to the rather intriguing cover art collage, and if you really love this end of the genre, and want to visit or revisit a precursor to the sounds you've become accustomed to through the releases of labels like Sevared, Comatose, or Amputated Vein, exhume and enjoy.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]