Writhing / Ad Patres - split

WRITHING / AD PATRES - Split (NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST - MC 2012)

I’ve got few releases from Nihilistic Holocaust recently and one of them is the split tape of two absolutely unknown bands – American Writhing and French Ad Patres. The first one delivered their latest 2012 demo “Indomitable”, with three songs, while the later has used their three tracks from Promo 2010. Both bands play sort of brutal and modern death metal… and I must admit that on the first listen I was like “oh, this ain’t my shit”, but after few more spins I started to like one of the two bands, while another still remains dull for me.

Of the two I definitely like Writhing more, as their slab of American death metal brutality is not bad at all. I mean their music is fast, technical, but with some truly killer riffs and whole fragments, like in the opening song “Indomitable”. Ha, definitely they take a lot of influence from the likes of few recent Deicide albums, Malevolent Creation, Suffocation and stuff like that (is it just me, or the riffing in “Death of Your Dream” really sounds a lot like Vader???). Surely there’s a lot of potential in Writhing, they do have some great ideas and definitely technically they managed to nail their music perfectly. As I said, I do like the riffs, actually each of the three songs has something what I like about them, also the production is really good, so I can assure you that Writhing is kind of band, which you just must no hesitate and just listen to.

Meanwhile Ad Patres… well, stylewise they are way more modern, with almost some of that shitty deathcore influence here and there, but a bit of grind as well (for that just check “To the Fathers”)… no, sorry, but I just don’t like such stuff. OK, there are some riffs I like, but as overall there is more stuff, which I hate about the modern death metal than I like (that mentioned “To the Fathers” song, really… what a shite…). This stuff is I guess comparable to the recent Aborted and Suffocation albums for instance, with more core here and there… And sure, it is pretty intense, brutal, kicking fast and sometimes I do find it as pleasant, but there’s always something what disturbs me (like some vocals lines when the growl is mixed with pig squeal and high screaming… eh). Surprisingly the production value of this Promo 2010 is bigger than of the Writhing demo, as it really sounds professional and I guess I can say that it is good enough for an album, sounding almost like some of the Hertz Studio releases… but all in all this just isn’t my kind of music. Oh, interesting is the fact that the band line up includes a couple of Seth / Enthroned members.

Final rate: 75 / 100 (Writhing) – 60 / 100 (Ad Patres) – 69 / 100 (overall)