Bands To Watch: Dawn Of Dementia - Residuum E.P. (2012)

 Music may be universal, but most music, especially within metal, has a specific geographical area where a certain sub-genre is in abundance. Notable examples would be Swedish melodic death metal, Norwegian black metal and Finnish power metal. In the US the same is true in many different states. California has legions of tech-death bands, while like-wise New York is known for its slam, and Florida is widely known to be the birthplace of death metal.

Indiana however, is not widely known for its metal. I could name half a dozen bands from many other states but am aware of only two bands from Indiana, brutal death act Visceral Throne, and this interesting 5-piece, Dawn Of Dementia.

Lafayette, Indiana based band Dawn Of Dementia have just released their debut EP, Residuum. And in my honest opinion, it kicks ass. Plain and simple. From the opening harmonised guitar/bass sweeps of "Visceral Maelstrom" this EP just does not let up. This is 20 minutes of very promising tech-death, well produced and well written, finished off with what I believe to be some fucking cool cover art.

This band shows a lot of promise from their composition and their ability to create such a finely crafted end product after only 2 years as a band. Guitarists Derick Harshbarger and Brandon Clevenger show they have a clear understanding and respect for their instrument, from speedy tremolo picked riffs to clean, fluidly played harmony licks, everything is played to perfection, and nothing sounds overly technical or pretentious, once again a tech-death band has found a way to be technical and yet accessible at the same time, through the use of catchy oddly timed breakdowns or odd, spacey sounding guitar leads. Bassist Joel Schwallier brings the bass to the forefront on this EP, utilising it as a lead instrument without causing anything else to seem less important, drummer Sean Allison is highly competent and supplements the music nicely without missing a beat.

In my opinion, vocalist Noe Sepulveda has done a fantastic job on this EP, recalling the strength and clarity of former The Faceless vocalist Derek Rydquist. Lyrically I can't help but also draw comparison to Planetary Duality era Faceless, but in my opinion that is a fantastic thing, because while Autotheism may be a fantastic new direction for The Faceless, a part of me dearly misses their old style. And this is a nice reminder.

If these guys keep things up, I can honestly say I expect great things for them, this is melodic, well composed, technical as fuck death metal the way it should be played.

9.6/10

Check this out if: You're a tech-death fanatic like me, or you want to hear what the faceless might sound like had they written Planetary Duality part 2

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For fans of: The Faceless (Pre-Autotheism), Decrepit Birth, Deeds Of Flesh.
Residuum is currently only on YouTube, but will hopefully be available to buy soon.