cofin birth

Forever Extreme: Extremity's "Occision"

cofin birth

Death metal can do quite a lot of things. Being so closely tied to the central trunk of heavy metal, it can vary as widely as lush and artful to technical shredfests to frantic and atonal avant-gardism. And Extremity chooses, in this vast cosmos of death metal, to beat the ever loving shit out of you.

The California quartet’s upcoming full-length Coffin Birth expands on their debut EP Extremely Fucking Dead, a thesis statement of a debut if ever there was one, by indulging in death-doom and creepy diminished melodicism held together with a glue that’s all Cannibal Corpse worship. But, on the turn of a riff, there rises Incantation riffs, Entombed riffs, and Immolation riffs: an encyclopedia of death metal played not as pastiche of older records and older bands but a reaffirmation of the meat and potatoes of death metal as we know it.

It’s easy to get caught up in artsy and progressive ideas or cavernous production or d-beat hardcore baiting; Extremity instead choose to join Tomb Mold in affirming the value of the base sonic concepts of death metal. Listen to an exclusive premiere of “Occision” below.

“Occision” is a cut from late in the record, a temporary reprieve from the death metal symphonies in miniature that comprise the vast majority of the album with a brief and fucking brutal slice of grind. There’s a d-beat here, sure, but there’s no denying the deathly intent of the riffs and the caveman growl of the vocals. While other tracks indulge in influences as wide within the field as Autopsy and Death, balancing the lingering dread of the riffs of the former with the harmonized ace riffing of the later, “Occision” instead chooses to beat your ass stupid till drool and beer are flung from your wagging tongue.

— Langdon Hickman

Coffin Birth will be released July 20th on 20 Buck Spin.

From drummer Aesop Dekker:

This is the most concise song on the record, a nod to d-beat punk and primitive grind, and one of my personal favorite tracks from Coffin Birth.

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