Monstrosity - In Dark Purity (1999)^{Release ID: 8560}

Monstrosity sort of passed me by in the 90's.  I do not recall that I even heard anything by them until last year when I went through Millenium over a number weeks, purely because I had only just cottoned on to the fact that George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher started out in the band before he got in Cannibal Corpse.  At the time of releasing In Dark Purity, three years had passed and George was gone having exited the band in late 1995.  Replacement Jason Avery however was more than up to the job and I feel he filled the vocalist vacancy really well.  His vocals bring Cannibal Corpse to mind a lot in all honesty which is ironic.  Any fear of a lull in quality amongst fans of the band, having seen their long standing vocalist defect I would imagine were instantly quashed.  Avery's bellows are just as demented as you like and accompany the horrifying backdrop of the instruments perfectly.

Musically, if you think of the fury of Deicide coupled with the sonic swarms of Morbid Angel, you could pitch In Dark Purity somewhere in between the two.  Tony Norman certainly knew his way around the six strings he had slung around his shoulders, igniting tracks with an Azagthoth-esque sonic intensity whilst at the same time being able to give us a fair share of Hoffman-esque pacing and the riffing rhythm of a Jack Owen or Rob Rusay.  The drumming of Lee Harrison is functional enough without him getting Pete Sandoval in ability at any point.

In Dark Purity is probably one of the most underrated death metal albums from the 90's.  It is an improvement on Millenium, its predecessor, which is no mean feat and one that shows there was a lot more to Monstrosity than just their original vocalist.  Whilst it may not be a lot different to most of what else already came out in the heyday of death metal it is well crafted and agile in its performance.  There are occasional time changes and obscure signatures that herald the opening of a new section or sound that show this was a band with something extra in the tank to keep them slugging it out with the big shots of the scene.  I would not go as far as to describe it as technical death metal but there is certainly some depth to it.

Unsurprisingly, given my rudimentary knowledge of death metal, I have never heard of Floridians Monstrosity before, despite their thirty-plus years existence within the Floridian death metal scene. I have since found out that they were the original home of Cannibal Corpse vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher who left Monstrosity after their second album, Millennium, to join CC. For In Dark Purity, Monstrosity's third full-length, the band recruited new vocalist Jason Avery who, on the strength of this, seems like a more than capable replacement for "Corpsegrinder" and I must confess that I like this more than any Cannibal Corpse album that I have heard (which, believe it or not, is most of them).

The band are really tight and the riffs are thick and chunky with Avery vomiting out the lyrics with imperious contempt. This is exactly how I like death metal to sound, hard as fucking nails with a good degree of competence, but without being overly technical or showy. I struggle sometimes with death metal albums where all the tracks sound very similar, but on In Dark Purity each track is very well defined and there is plenty of variety on offer without straying too far beyond what makes the band's blistering approach so great. The solos are quite varied too and are fairly dynamic sounding, but with a kind of old-school metal aspect to them rather than just a short burst of squealing every time a solo is required! Even the cover of Slayer's Angel of Death that closes out the album, although superfluous, is as well done as anyone could expect from a band that isn't Slayer.

This is one of the most mature-sounding death metal albums I have ever heard - even with the song titles the band refuse to resort to the cartoonish or ridiculous. For my money In Dark Purity must be one of the best-kept secrets of late-nineties death metal and is an album that I will definitely be seeking out for purchase. Pity the cover art is so awful, though.