Foretold… Foreseen is the first release from this underground Texas label, which also happens to be a zine. Prophecy come from Dallas, a scene which I had no clue about until this CD was released. I’ve heard that the most brutal and sickest death metal bands are within this scene so I decided to check what one of “Texas’ finest death metal acts” had to offer. Before I continue, let me explain the band’s sound in a nutshell: Prophecy literally translates the vocal techniques found in Dying Fetus and fused them with the basic New York sound with a slight modification in song structuring. The album starts of with “Core of Depression”, which begins with a clean acoustic-like intro that sounds nice at first but when the actual song enters, it makes you think, “Why the hell was this intro used???.” The riffs are very thrashy while it breaks down to slam riffs used by every other bands in the NYDM scene; though the time changes are pretty interesting yet awkward at times, Prophecy has managed to create aggressive mood swings with this technique. The first two songs drag the brutality that is needed to showcase the full potential of this five piece but once the listener reaches “Feasting on the Flesh”, one would be brutalized to a bloody mess with its catchy riffs and overall flow of the song while Erik Lindmark of Deeds of Flesh along with Jason Netherton and John Gallagher of Dying Fetus do backup vocals on this song alone. I would simply say that this is the highlight song on the CD. The rest of the songs like “Diggin’ a Pit” and “Prophecy” are quite interesting while the rest sounds like filler-type songs. What makes this band better than other bands in the death metal scene? I guess it would be the semi-decent yet muffled-like production to behold the massive sound Prophecy’s looking for and the use of “famous people” in the scene such as Chris Pervelis from Internal Bleeding doing the layout and JONZIG of Deeds of Flesh fame conjuring up the artwork for Prophecy. There’s nothing really new about these guys but if you’re heavily into the groove-laden sound that was once founded by Suffocation when they released Effigy of the Forgotten and love the monotonous grunts and predictable vocal patterns Dying Fetus are known for, then this is definitely for you. One last thing, the use of a three minute silent gap to extend the CD to a rather lame “hidden track” hardly ever works, and this just shows how hidden tracks can fortify this band into the bliss of nowhere with such sequence.

Written By: Reggie