Review: Altar of Pain - Severe Scourge

Okay so I got an email from a member of Altar of Pain and he asked me to do a review for their new EP, said and done. Altar of Pain is a death metal band from Madeira island, Portugal. The band was formed in the summer of 2010 and they are according to their Facebook page influenced by bands like Death, Belphegor, Deicide and Cannibal Corpse. So far they have released some EPs, demos etc. I will however only review the most recent EP, Severe Scourge. They released Severe Scourge on a site called Bandcamp and I will forward you to the actual page at the end of the review.The production and the drums are the things that bother me the most. It feels like they have programmed the drums in some program or something, because they sound exactly the same throughout the entire EP. The guitars sound very mild and tame compared to what you get when recording properly, so I have my suspicions that these guys recorded and produced this EP at home with the help of a computer. The lyrics are mostly about gore and diseases, which is pretty cool! The tracks vary in length and the shortest is three and a half minutes long while the longest track is just over five minutes long. As a more positive note I bet the riffs are really technical or something, so fans of technical music or stuff like that might enjoy it.

Logo. 

The first track on this seven song EP is Death By Exsanguination and it starts with a bang right away, and that is always appreciated. What isn't just as appreciated is the drums, and especially not the double bass drums that have this clickety-click sound. Yuck. The riffs are pretty cool though and I like the riff in the intro and the one in the verse, but I really dislike the one in the chorus. The song is built around the basic intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-solo-verse-chorus-outro/end method and it is a very common practice within this kind of music. Had I liked the riff in the chorus and the drums I might have enjoyed this piece, but I don't and we move on to the next track. And the next track is Fatal Disease and it starts pretty much like the previous song with uptempo riffing and some more boring double bass drumming. This intro doesn't appeal to me at all and I don't get that excited over the verse either... The chorus isn't as fast as the verse and the double bass drums are starting to hammer on my patience. Next!
The third song is The Fleshless Goddess and I get fed up early this time, because those clicking double bass drum appear right from the start. What annoys me even more is that the second riff follows the bass drums in the strumming. I have to say that the vocals are decent though, although generic they are still decent.

I bet this cover was made in Photoshop. 

It's time for the fourth track, Infected. The first ten seconds before the double bass drums kick in are pretty damn good, but I can't really say that they are enough to make me enjoy this song at all. 

Following Infected we have Organic Pathogen and this song is about some plague or something. We are yet again presented by those detestable drums and I can barely listen to it anymore because the clicking is just so damn annoying. Clickety-fucking-click! Organic Pathogen is the second longest track on this digital EP and I can't really point out anything specific anymore because the riffs and the beats are all too generic. Following Organic Pathogen we have Scriptorium and it starts with a slow intro without the double bass drums, which is like some kind of blessing by now. The drum fills here are pretty neat, and I can actually listen to the double bass drums this time because they are a bit slower and that means that the clicking isn't as annoying. The vocals are just as decent as before but the riffs are more listenable! This song is easily the second best on the EP and I have regained my patience and my focus. The solo is pretty sweet although it is cheezy as fuck in the beginning and followed by a two-track solo where one guitar does some tremolo sling and the other is tapping. Onward to the final track! The final track is Void Dimension and it is an instrumental song. Sadly it starts with the double bass drums yet again. It feels like they are mixed lower though, because the clicking isn't as obvious in the beginning. But it is still there. We are then offered some blast beats mixed with some more double bass drumming. But the next part is a slower part and it is actually pretty good, the riff is good, the drums aren't as obvious and that is about it. Following the slower session we get an even slower part that is sadly overthrown by more double bass drums. The riff here is pretty boring and it sounds like some band from that shitty wave of metal that came a while back. The EP fades out with this riff and that is about it, my friends. 

I am not a big fan of music that is made at home in a basement with computer drums or music that sounds like it. Therefore I can very well say that this EP isn't for me. These guys should try to get some time in a studio and re-record this and release it properly, I'm sure some people would appreciate it.

This EP is for fans of: Mephorash

My verdict: 2/5