SWELLING REPULSION
SWELLING REPULSION “Fatally Misguided”
By Dr. Abner Mality
The band name had me anticipating gore-soaked slam but this mysterious outfit has more going on than just that. This dwells in the “weird” corner of the death metal genre, invoking long-gone names like AFFLICTED and DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA in the press sheet. They claim to be technical, psychedelic and off-kilter.
Well, compared to their labelmates DEFECT DESIGNER, SWELLING REPULSION come across as fairly conventional. Suffice to say, they don’t reach the level of the Norwegians, but then, who does? Opening track “Vanquished” is not a great introduction, as the song is mid-paced semi-psychedelic dissonance that is far from an ass-kicking experience. But the game picks up with “Basking In the Fumes of Failure”, which is angular, speed-oriented death that switches up quite a bit. This is more where the band shines. I find the record hampered by a very average production job. They seem to be trying for somewhat of a Swedish HM-2 guitar sound, but the result is buzzy and rather unpleasant. The bass doesn’t pop the way it should in a tech-oriented band. So even tracks that are structured well like the title track and the extremely heavy “Cesspool of Dismembered Memory” are not at their full potential due to the ham-fisted mix.
They do keep things flowing nicely, with fairly short songs that have a lot of punch and don’t overstay their welcome. An exception is the final track “Sullen Light Of Expired Stars”, which kind of rambles and proved they are not ready for more epic length cuts. That being said, “Fatally Misguided” is a rather breezy listen that roars by in a flash. SWELLING REPULSION need to get a better production job and concentrate more on their strengths if they want to join DEFECT DESIGNER at the top tier of weirdo tech-death. Who’s to say they can’t do it?