Rating: 7.8

Country: Czech Republic

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Lacerated Enemy

Track list:
1. Inhale the Last Dread
2. Withered Essence
3. Untitled Feelings
4. Breathing Dense Air of Panic
5. Malicious Elements
6. Out of Here, Near You
7. Threshold of Tragedy
8. Pleasure Remains Pain
9. Insolent World

Total playing time 47:36

Band Website: Despise

Despise - Fragments of Reprisal

Ider Farfan - Vocals & Guitar
Mauricio Landazuri - Guitar
Ruben Barros - Bass
Carlos Estrella - Keyboards
Danny Molina - Drums

While I lashed out at Abominable Putridity [review] and other similar slam-minded brutal bands, Despise here prove it to all through me that not all is wrong with the brutal death metal world. On Fragments of Reprisal, they play music that is sufficiently rooted in the old brutal style, bears modern technicality that is not in the least bit disconcerting, and injects refreshing stylish bits of its own to turn you into a believer. Influences include early Internal Bleeding, old Suffocation, later Broken Hope material, and to cite a modern reference, their own country mates Godless Truth circa Arrogance of Supreme Power.

On an album that has only five songs and a cover and still lasts a satisfying 30 minutes, the opening song itself is over six minutes long. It is a good representative of what makes this album click. After a steady and controlled onslaught of heavy music that involves blasting and a fair bit of chugging and slamming for about a minute, the seemingly impermeable music is clawed into with sharp technical squealing bits and extravagant leads that tear down its stiff brutal resistance. Shortly after the latter's flurry subsides, the brutal side of the band grabs the reins and resumes punishing the listener with its heavy parts, which, as you would rightly expect, isn't allowed to go on forever and relief parts are summoned at once. It is this inexorable and smooth ebb and flow of the band that sustains your interest even in a brutal song this long. And the best part about it is that these brutal or technical parts/leads, which the music invariably comes back to, sounds slightly different each time as a result of it having being constantly worked upon.

“Serenity Through Indulgence” uses a short spacey industrial sampling to begin and this is observed quite a few times in this album. It peaks when the band whips out a killer riff, and by employing fitting leads and keyboards, enhances its value to make it epic and quite memorable. It also features guest vocals from the Smashed Face vocalist, who with his processed sounding squeals adds variation to the powerful deep grunts and growls of the Despise vocalist who sounds like a more brutal and guttural version of Frank Rini of early Internal Bleeding. Other guest vocal appearances on this album include Jon Zig of Sarcolytic (also responsible for the album artwork), Joel Sta of Pyaemia/Arsebreed, and label owner Zdenek of Godless Truth. A well-written convoluted song that is sure to satiate fans of technical brutal music, “A Spiral of Paranoia” features a mind-boggling interplay between the riffs and the twisted leads.

By now it should be pretty evident that Despise's sound, the technical competence of their experienced members (couple of them play for Imperial Foeticide), and developed song writing skills make Fragments of Reprise a good brutal album already. So you will be pleasantly surprised when you hear uncharacteristic and outstanding parts in the last two songs preceding a fine Internal Bleeding cover. The highlight of “Self-Analysis Overdose” is derived from Edge of Sanity's Crimson where the cool part in context happens to be the highlight of that song/album itself (surely seasoned deathheads would know what I'm talking about)! And then the progressive “Enshrouded In Misconception” culminates in classic mid-era Hypocrisy style, using stirring keyboard tunes and fitting riffs to signal the end of Despise's proceedings before their Internal Bleeding cover leaves their teary-eyed listeners with a feeling of brutal nostalgia.

Fragments of Reprise is quite a colourful album for a band this brutal, with only the Despise's rigid stance holding it back. Very few bands can deliver a brutal tech death album that succeeds on so many counts, and it comes as no surprise that the one to make it happen hails from the Czech Republic. Buy.

April 23rd, 2007