Critical Extravasation - Order of Decadence (Redefining Darkness)
It takes guts nowadays for a band to put out a cover as nasty and quaint as the one above—with its skeletal zombie-hydra rending that Land Before Time panorama—and not bill the release as contributing to the rising tide of 'old school' death metal. Thankfully, Critical Extravasation are no strangers to danger, having spoken out in "extreme distaste" for Russia's current regime right from Moscow, where one should not forget how unkindly that sort of online trail might be taken. They seem like a trio of genuinely good dudes, doing genuinely good-dude stuff like volunteering in Ukrainian refugee camps. But that’s not why we're featuring them here at Mutant Breakfast: They're in your feed trough thanks to a knack for making their tricky stew of brutal tech thrash simple and satisfying as a chocolate-chip cookie.
No, Order of Decadence is not 'old school' in the way that bands like Inhuman Condition or Cryptworm claim to be. Critical Extravasation embrace a galloping thrash-album rubric, but soup it up with a wooly Pierced From Within bass and tadpole-Archspire (Archantenna?) guitar melodies. The result is exactly what Decadence's title promises, in a way that so much trad/cross-over thrash falls flat. Many will draw comparisons to Аспид, but listening to Critical Extravasation, I was actually inspired to relive my youngian awe at the lush complexity of Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and ...and Justice for All—long before I knew to call them thrash(+) masterworks. There’s even a moment toward the end of “Redeeming Flames” that sounds like the climax on "One," unencumbered by a shitty mix! Long story short, this is a full-length debut earning comparisons to peak Metallica. Even if the vocal performance grows a bit stale (like Hatfield's often did), Critical Extravasation are doing something right.