When Unique Leader first posted preview mp3s of Decrepit Birth’s …And Time Begins on their website, my initial impression was "Holy shit, this sounds like Deeds Of Flesh." Now that I’ve listened to the album in it’s entirety several times, I stand by my initial reaction, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. On this recording Decrepit Birth consisted of current Suffocation bassist Derek Boyer, ex-Deprecated guitarist Matt Sotelo, vocalist Bill Robinson and Tim Yeung (ex-Hate Eternal) as session drummer, so the talent level on this release is obviously extremely high. The drumming is typical of Tim Yeung; relentless triggered blasts, similar to the work he did on Hate Eternal’s Conquering The Throne. Bill’s vocals are deep and raspy with Matt and Derek filling in the gurgles and growls in the background, making for one of the best tri-vocal assaults you’re likely to come across for this style of music. The riffing on this album is definitely impressive; super fast, intricate and technical and being able to clearly hear Derek’s bass work it’s obvious why Suffocation snatched him up and added him to the fold. The song structure reminds me a lot of Deeds Of Flesh with the triggered-to-shit drumming blasting away in the background with the precisely technical riffing and vocal assault, although the actual songwriting is more a blend of various technical brutal death metal acts, like the aforementioned Deeds Of Flesh, Suffocation, Hate Eternal, Severed Savior and other warp-speed acts. Originality-wise it’s lacking, but the overall performance is excellent and easily puts the album, and band, at the top of Unique Leader’s roster, and in the upper echelon of brutal death metal acts. Another pleasant surprise was the cover artwork by Dan Seagrave, it’s just great to see an album released on Unique Leader whose artwork wasn’t done by the god awful Jonzig whose artwork always winds up looking like a big blurry mess. …And Time Begins is technical brutal death metal the way it’s meant to be played and an absolute must own for fans of the genre. It should be interesting to see how Decrepit Birth’s follow-up will stack up without Tim Yeung and Derek Boyer in the line-up. Hopefully they’ll stick around long enough to record another effort for us to find out. Definitely a pleasant surprise from a label renown for releasing less-than-stellar albums outside of Deeds Of Flesh.

Written By: Teufel