One and Done? Pt. 15: Transgressor

I could easily echo most of the same statements that I made in the first paragraph of the Nuctemeron post two days ago.  Transgressor is a very obscure death metal band from Japan whose only full-length release came in 1992.  What I picked up is not the original release of the album, rather it is a reissue from Hexed Cemetary from 2015. 

Japan, for whatever reason, is not a country that produces a lot of death metal.  There is quite a bit of black metal (Abigail), including some avant-garde stuff (Sigh), a lot of thrash metal (Sabbat, King's-Evil), even doom metal (Coffins).  And then there is the traditional metal (Loudness) and the visual kei/traditional metal weirdness that could only come from Japan (X-Japan).  But not much death metal, at least not much traditional death metal, there are slam bands.  So it was kind of interesting to find such a strong death metal release from a band who apparently just did not keep going.

Transgressor's sound is murky and weird.  There are a lot of well-crafted, progressive structures and a very strong doom metal influence.  The band does a terrific job of creating an eerie, creepy atmosphere through the use of dissonant chords, seemingly out-of-tune guitars and slowly creeping riffs, but then suddenly lurches into a fast-paced death metal riff.  Think a doomier combination of Death and Autopsy. 

There are some damn impressive songs here and this should have been a cult death metal classic.  It really is that damn good.  Unfortunately it is an album largely forgotten to time. And a big part of that reason is the fact that Transgressor only released the one.