Not to be confused with the German brutal death metal band of the same name, Epicedium is a technical death metal band out of California. There’s not much to gather about the band, other than a MySpace that hasn’t been updated in ages and this single full length. However, they play their brand of technical death metal with a brand of vitality and vigor that is admirable and shows promise with tighter music writing skill.

Epicedium’s technical style isn’t along the lines of Death or Atheist. Nor is it along the more Meshuggah-influenced areas of bands like Corprofago and early Theory in Practice. Nor do they go for the spastic technicality seen in bands like Beneath the Massacre nor the brutality of Defeated Sanity or Decrepit Birth. In fact, it’s really hard to put a finger on Epicedium’s technical style. It’s not ultra-clinical and sterile, but no way is it bizarre and organic like Gorguts, either. There are moments of some of Pavor’s more inventive song writing, but Epicedium is much more energetic and its bass isn’t as tight as Pavor. On tracks like "The Corpse Yard" the band delves into riffing not unlike Monstrosity, with guitar shredding not too far from the vein of Spiritual Apocalypse. Vocally, Rainer O’Donnell has a pretty typical growl, but it fits the music and is delivered very coherently.

The only gripe with this self-tilted debut I have is that the music writing is a bit obtuse at first to jump into. Frankly the opening track bored me to tears. But once the ferocity and intensity of "Lifeforms" and "The Wraith" kicked in I was rather interested to hear more. The music writing isn’t spectacular, but the energy and the generally solid quality of the writing makes Epicedium’s future much more promising.

Epicedium’s self-titled album is a decent sign of things to come. Given another album or so, if Epicedium stays the course of its musical writing I can definitely see them producing a fantastic album. As for this release, there is more than enough here to warrant a venture. Definitely worth a grab if you can find it. Though given the inactivity of their MySpace, I’m curious as to whether the band even still exists.

Written By: Necro-tron