One needn’t look much further than “Desolation Of Eden” to see the stagnancy overtaking the deathcore genre. While initially impressive on the basis of its thundering riffs and evenly tempered rhythm section; this album rapidly devolves into an almost laughable combination of formulaic monolithic pounding and insipid larynx shredding.

There’s the guttural growls, the pig squeals, the mid-tempo chug riffs and the occasional friction created by an obtuse technical solo/speedy incendiary breakdown. Essentially that is all Chelsea Grin bring to the table.

With such a limited playbook the album comes off as though the band tried to stretch the ideas for two songs into eleven. Sure it’s commendable that they don’t proceed to molest their fretboards at every turn and instead opt for a dirgeful, almost symphonic black metal styled pacing.

But with a lack of individuality on a track by track basis and few memorable ideas, what could have been a plus for them winds up making their own inadequacies stand out even more. The oppressive sense of heaviness provided by their lumbering momentum can only carry the material for so long before it is bogged down and left behind by the listeners own imagination. Truly, the only grin offered here will come from hitting the stop button.

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  ( 13 votes, 2.62 stars )
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