Glorious Depravity (Pyrrhon, Woe, Mutilation Rites) Outruns the "Digital Reaper"
As the new wave of death metal history revitalizing reaches its peak, with so many “new old school death metal” bands quite literally flooding the market, we have to step back and look at our new creation, as it were. There is a lot of… thinking involved. Thinking about sounding like your favorite band, designing shirts to look like your favorite Earache logos-down-the-sleeve monstrosity, how to be the most old school possible. We must remember… there wasn’t a ton of thinking back when death metal was in its infancy, at least aside from “how can we be the heaviest thing in existence right now?” There wasn’t anything to emulate back then — artists simply had to make do with their creativity, and I feel that sort of unbridled, non-emulatory ingenuity when I listen to the new “New York supergroup” Glorious Depravity.
When presented with new song “Digital Reaper,” the first word which comes to mind, and it should when listening to death metal is: heavy. This isn’t an atmospheric trip through previously-explored deep space or some sort of spelunking expedition, rather, Glorious Depravity, which boasts members of Woe, Pyrrhon, Mutilation Rites, and more, simply sets out to be the heaviest band out there. There is no pretense nor rote emulation, it simply feels classic without the downside of being able to point out other bands within their riffcraft. Don’t think too much — it’s fucking death metal. Listen to an exclusive pre-release premiere of “Digital Reaper” below.
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From vocalist (and former Invisible Oranges Editor-in-Chief) Doug Moore:
Musically, this song comes from the same place as all of our other songs: the desire to make sick ’90s-style death metal. We wrote this one pretty late in the process, and it’s a step in a slightly more technical direction relative to the older songs on the album. I detect shades of Monstrosity, Disincarnate, early Decapitated, and (as usual) early Cannibal Corpse in this one – plus our own peculiar stink.
Lyrically, this one’s about the impersonal and inglorious way that modern militaries do their killing. The crucible of combat now often consists of bureaucrats in office buildings ordering robots to blow up weddings from miles away, which oddly hasn’t done much to deflate our massive hard-on for war. On the other hand, a lot of wars throughout history boil down to unaccountable rich guys committing wanton slaughter against the defenseless, so maybe that makes sense.
Lyrics:
“Digital Reaper”
Cold-eyed false god hidden in the sky
Enthroned by the machinations of wicked men
Without pity or remorse, I Smite the defiant with a fell hand In the service of the faraway masters
Unleashing munitions, reducing to giblets
Those unfortunate souls that my sensors discern In the distances below
I spare no life: man, woman, or child
The heavens shall disgorge their hellfire
Murder indiscriminate
The bereaved, in impotent tears
Shake their fists at the firmament
Slain by the digital reaper
Digital reaper, icy dispenser of savagery
Patient point of the imperial spear
The reaper takes no pleasure in butchery I await, bladelike, austere
Thrall-minded devastator, civilian depopulator I inflict callous judgment
With perfect efficiency, perfect impunity I render them disincarnate
No justice, just a blast radius
Not for me to make reply
Not for me to reason why ‘Tis for me to do, And for them to die
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Ageless Violence releases November 27th on Translation Loss.
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