As I am currently involved in a listening project where we grind through the most important of classic Death Metal albums (coming soon to this very blog), I think a lot about what separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to Death Metal. It seems that every month – sometimes every week, even – there is a new flavor of the week Death Metal album generating hype. Many of these do nothing for me and I often reference the fact that these aren’t doing much new and I could just as well reach for the classics and have a better experience. However, every so often, one comes along that, while also not doing anything particularly new, does connect with me. Conjureth is such a case.
Conjureth are certainly talented. The band deals in a type of auditory chaos that could just as well be considered sloppy but that adds to the experience here – an album so aggressive and wild, bursting at its seams, that the musicians can barely hold it together. Again, this is all interpretation and I have in the past dissed similar albums for their sloppy performance. Energy is another such point, as I can’t pinpoint why the foreward playing performance of Conjureth is better than many of their contemporaries with similar energy. The album takes a bit to get going, but almost improves because of it as it seems that there is an arc of escalation to the album. I might have called it frontloaded, did I not enjoy the experience. I believe the chaotic nature of the performances and riffing helps, to be honest. Conjureth are rather traditional and as many modern acts, they mix and match their influences rather freely. Whereas in most modern OSDM, I feel inclined to pinpoint what original song is being turned into a pastiche, that feeling never really comes up with Conjureth. I never quite expect where it is going and every section doesn’t leave me enough time to think about what came before. Minor quibbles hurt the experience – like the Death/Doom of closer “The Unworshipped II”, which the album doesn’t prepare the listener for. But overall, I wish Death Metal could offer an experience like this more often: just being good enough that being extravagant is superfluous.
