Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Apparition (USA) - Feel (2021)

There is a strong argument (in my opinion at least) that Apparition need not bother releasing another record. I mean they surely cannot make Feel ever again I am sure, so as much as I would lap up anything else they release in the future, if this is the sum of their output as a group then they would be ending on a very high note. Taking all the standard references from ugly death metal such as Autopsy and Incantation and wearing them on their chests like war trophies, Apparition’s debut album is an unapologetic celebration of death metal that is bereft of melody and uninterested in technical prowess or boundary expansion.

That is not to say that these cannot play. They may sound like Autopsy in places, but they are by no means as clumsy in their delivery. Apparition sounds like a collaboration of capable musicians recording an almost jam session like sequence of tracks. This is an album that deploys spectral elements well enough to provide real depth and dimension to proceedings. Strings get picked here as well as being engaged in some consistently rhythmical riffing also. As one guitarist goes into a slow chug, the other lags slightly behind and drops some dankly melodic notes to emphasize that this is an album that writhes in murk.

It is the tracks that invite these spectral elements that stand out from the crowd with Entanglement being a particularly strong moment towards the end of the record. Vocalist Andrew Morgan is suitably as monstrous on the skins as he is with his vocal cords as his drum work drives the strong sense of rhythm on Feel. As I said in the opening paragraph of this review, I could play Feel forever without a care for anything else that Apparition might put out in the future. Taking the modern format of Tomb Mold and giving it a deeply rooted foundation in the old-school, Feel is a fantastic example of why death metal does not always need frills to be interesting.