90%
Dead Congregation—Purifying Consecrated Ground EP (2005)
Details
Recorded and mixed at Studio Wave by John Petrolias and A. Additional recording at Studio Archive. Songs arranged by the Dead Congregation. Artwork and layout by Ketolabominations. Cadaver photo by A.
Released on Enucleation Records in 2005 (Socket 08). Licensed from Konqueror Records.
Band
- A—Vocals and lead guitars
- T—Guitars, bass
- V—Drums
Tracks
- Vomitchrist
- Lucid curse
- Feasting angelcunts
- Auguring an eternal war
- Downward spiral of morbidity
Review
As EPs go, this really isn’t the cheeriest, to be honest. I know! It’s hard to believe from a band called ‘Dead Congregation’, a release entitled ‘Purifying Consecrated Ground’, song titles… erm, such as they are, and a cover that looks like it’s taken from the graphic novel of a Frank Peretti novel.
It may not come as much of a surprise then to discover that the lyrics are heavily anti-Christian (please skip the following if you are easily offended):
Drug-addict Christian minds,
waiting to be manipulated
Sheep to follow the teacher,
but you were the first one lost, cunt…Destructive, driven by demons –
Christfucking the temple above
I now have you blindfolded on your knees…
Lyrically it’s more black than death metal.
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what it all means. Although, to be fair, it probably doesn’t actually need to make any kind of logical sense; you get the general gist of it: Christians are dumb sheep, unable to think for themselves, easy prey to be tortured.
Mind you the picture painted in the lyrics of being so anti-Christian doesn’t present something that I imagine many would find very attractive.
I curse the stars
And your fire desecrating the wishes of all
In a pool of piss and blood I drown you
And I will laugh until I vomit and my eyes are dead.
Eh?! You will laugh until you bring up the entire contents of your stomach and your eyes are dead?!
Did their grannies not tell them, like mine did, that if they don’t have anything nice to say then to not say anything at all?
I keep reading the EP’s title as Putrefying Consecrated Ground. I think I may have got it right, judging by the lyrical content.
Having read the song titles and lyrics, I really didn’t want to like the music. I kind of wanted it to be that clear cut. That would make it easier for me: filthy lyrics, crap music, done!
This album has a very bassy mix, but is well balanced; the vocals are throaty (like Gorefest) but almost incomprehensible; the guitars and bass have a thick distorted tone, interspersed with Morbid Angel-style squeals; the drums, and particularly the cymbals don’t dominate.
Clocking in at a few seconds over twenty minutes, musically, this is a great death metal release. It’s not too long, it has pace and dynamics: thrashing energy one minute that effortlessly slams into a funereal dirge the next.
Conclusion
I have to say that, despite the lyrics, and the inverted crosses, and the Satanic goat on the CD label, and the dark, demonic cover, I really rather liked the music on this EP.
My moral conundrum, then, is do I mark it down because of the overtly Satanic content? Or do I judge it simply on its own merit, in isolation of my own faith and spiritual worldview?
I’ll you figure out whether I did or not.
Review score: 90%
Video
Someone appears to have uploaded the entire EP to YouTube.