Review Summary: An unrelenting barrage of sonic dissonance.
Origin is one of those bands that play a brand of Technical brutal death metal beyond human comprehension, with all the members boasting inhuman technique on their respective instruments. Echoes of Decimation barely clocks in at over 26 minutes, so get in the front seat, strap in and sit tight during those 26 minutes, as you are in for a full on aural assault. The number of riffs and sweeped solos heard on the album is enough to fill a Green Day album at least 50 times over (you get the point). Most of the songs are within 3 minutes, and don't really have a musical hook to latch on to. Surely with repeated listening, more analytical listeners will be able to pick up a melody here and there, but for the most part, Origin is here to pummel your aural senses into oblivion.
James Lee is an impressive death metal vocalist, being able to provide deep growls as well as high shrieks for variation. As with almost all death metal vocals, the lyrics are incomprehensible, the same holds true for Lee's vocals. Most of his vocal lines are rapid fire deliveries with the occasional long scream thrown in there, good examples of these are on "Reciprocal" "Cloning The Stillborn" and "Amoeba". Paul Ryan and Clinton Appelhanz handle guitar duties as well as backing vocals on the album, they provide some extremely technical riffs that form the bulk of the album, most of them are only heard once in each song, from time to time they show off their extreme sweeping technique. Occasionally, a theme can be heard in songs like "Staring Into The Abyss" and the title track "Echoes of Decimation".
Mike Flores handles bass duties and is unfortunately buried in the mix, as such I can't comment on his playing much, but to play in a band like Origin is no easy task, from that fact I can only infer is that he is an extremely technical bassist. I have used the word "extreme" three times already, but if we were to use one word to describe Origin, it would be just that. James King on drums is a highlight of the album, while there isn't too much variety, the technical aspect of his drumming itself is enough to hold your attention for the duration of the album, his blast beats are solid and even delivers some very fast gravity blasts, notably near the end of "Amoeba" and "Debased Humanity", holding them for over 20 seconds in the latter. My only complaint would be the sound of the drums, the snare sounds too light for my liking, even a solid hit (as few as these moments are) on the snare sounds like a flutter, but thankfully this problem is rectified on their following album, Antithesis.
Echoes of Decimation is more of an unrelenting barrage of sonic dissonance rather than a collection of actual songs with a defined theme and development, this works well for listeners who are looking for just that, but those who want more cohesive songs will not be disappointed to know that their following album Antithesis offers that. Antithesis still retains their technical and brutal aspects while placing a bit more emphasis on songwriting. Echoes of Decimation is a very satisfying outing from Origin, for what it is, 26 minutes of straight up brutality is perfect. Well done guys.
