Excommunication: The Legacy: 666

I love freebies. This CD was sent to me by the brother of one of the band members to review on the Encyclopedia Metallum. Here it is:

Excommunication is a young band out of Washington that plays some sort of melodic death metal with black metal influences (particularly in the vocals). This could be a decent combination that could work out pretty well in the right hands.

The first track off the album is an intro and I honestly don't understand the point of an intro on a 15 minute long album. It's just kind of a waste. Just write another song. The intro is ambient noise with vocals delivered in a raspy voice.

After that we get into the album itself. The songs are, for the most part, fairly short, with only the fourth song passing the 5 minute mark, and not by much. The production is surprisingly decent for a young band recording on their own, although I do think the drums are a little too high in the mix, this does present some problems which I will get to later. The other issue with the production is that the solos get a little lost. Nevertheless, it is still decent production from a band who could not afford a well-known producer.

Musically, there are some breakdowns in the songs, but I am not someone who has a problem with that sort of thing. The extended breakdown in the fourth track is actually fairly effective. Other than that, the structure of the songs is decent, not entirely repetitive and predictable which is a good thing. As for the musicians, the drummer seems to have a little trouble transitioning during riff changes, particularly on the third track. The riffs and leads are competent, if not original. Not a problem for a young band at all. I particularly like the almost-swing riffs toward the end of the fourth track and during the fifth track. The solos are not bad, but as mentioned earlier are kind of lost in the production. The vocals sound a lot like Deicide. There are two types: the brutal deep growling vocals and the raspy shrieking. This is fine with me, as I happen to like Deicide's vocals. They are not layered as in Deicide, but that is where the comparisons end.

All in all, this is a decent job for a very young, new band. There are some issues that should be worked out, but I think they can do so and put out some good music. Not an original sound, but competently played and enjoyable.