Rating: 7.6

Country: Ecuador

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: American Line

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: Total Death

Total Death - Desolate Recollections

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

Melodic Death Metal is a sub-genre that is unanimously detested here at Diabolical Conquest. Why then has it been covered, that too with a positive rating? Have the writers, more specifically me, turned into soft convulsively weeping pussies? How else do you explain this striking aberration? What led this rigid conventional death metal fan to extol a melodic death metal band? The answer, my perennially ignorant readers, is Cenotaph – a severely underappreciated Mexican band that had such a glorious era of melodic death metal that it would make even the pansy rockstar Swedes drop their penises in shame. Riding Our Black Oceans and Epic Rites are two albums where Cenotaph brilliantly weaved together heavy death/thrash elements with Scandinavian melodies (think The Red in the Sky is Ours era At The Gates). They were albums that tortured your soul with their scathing viciousness and alternatively made you burst out crying inconsolably like a baby with their intricate melodic parts. Their music outraged you, challenged you, hurt you, basically toyed with your innermost feelings and ultimately you had to love them for that, though not everyone was willing to be that patient with them. Clearly, it has been their loss, for these albums are rare unisex gems this sub-genre has to offer.

Total Death from Ecuador use the same formula of the now defunct Cenotaph, and invariably make you undergo the same feelings, albeit a bit subdued. That is still like having a red-hot iron rod inserted in your asshole by the guy whom you want to be your father-in-law, and you no choice but to gracefully endure it as it is his orthodox-minded daughter whom you're deeply in love with. To the music of Desolate Recollections, thoughts of the insufferable agony and intense romantic passion fight for dominance in your mind, and in Total Death's case, the latter wins. It's both a good thing and a bad thing for the average death metal fan. Good because it makes this album way more accessible than Cenotaph's and is also more diverse; and bad for it often makes the music mellow to the extent of certain parts being reminiscent of Dark Tranquillity, somewhat mercifully of their Projector era and not something that came later. While I'm at it, I'll venture to say that the music also resembles the first In Flames album, Lunar Strain, which you will be surprised, is not as gay as you think. And some mid-era chug-happy Sentenced also bobs in your mind after hearing songs like “Breathing Dense Air of Panic”.

It would be tedious to describe each and every song, as they are pretty varied and not always consistent. Common points would be the songs being elaborately structured (a couple of them stretching for as long as seven minutes) but far from being as convoluted as those of Cenotaph; the music has a free-flowing aspect to it and all the room in the clean production it needs for the instruments to resound as clearly in your head as criticism from your girlfriend. Tempo can fluctuate drastically from vigorous thrashy chugging to just a slow sentimental tune based on the mood of the song but it never suddenly alienates the listener. If you are not content with the direction of the particular song (there are bound to be such moments), then there are always a few beautiful melodies and passionate leads that get you right back on track, some of them being truly breathtaking and more than make up for the unsatisfactory parts you had to endure before that. Their songs heave with such emotions that it can make your heart pound like that of a tired dog and then there are also those occasional melodramatic ones that can make it cringe with embarrassment. Shrieked vocals are satisfyingly acerbic but there are moments where clean and even crooning vocals are employed.

Desolate Recollections is a surprisingly mature album that, sadly unlike Cenotaph's work, is more beautiful than it is painful, and that's the only thing preventing a self-conscious me from fully embracing it, despite all the fond and sweetened memories of Cenotaph that it unabashedly evokes. It however is safe to say that it is an album that doesn't wallow in self-pity or resort to subsequent endless wankery; surely this band has balls hanging somewhere under the melo-death skirt that are of acceptable circumference. Desolate Recollections is still a mood album, and the extent of your liking will vary depending on how attuned you can be to its comparatively mellow death metal music. As a respectable straight metalhead, I'm sure you don't spend much of your time checking out tolerable melo-death albums, and now that I've found a good one for you, from Ecuador no less, you better check it out.

April 16th, 2007