Descension

In the liner notes to Descension‘s Dunwich EP, the metal sextet explains that “much of what you hear is ‘first take’ material to capture the true ‘live’ feeling.” The disc succeeds on these terms — the drums sound as immediate as a knock on the front door, and the guitars are as raw and bloody as an extra-rare steak — but there’s really no way to reproduce the live Descension experience on record. (A spring-loaded pop-up lyric book that would startle unwitting consumers might be a good start; perhaps the band’s new distribution home, Relapse Records, will shell out the cash.) Live, as on record, the vocals range from sinister hisses to wails with operatic overtones, and the riffs shred savagely without sacrificing melody for speed. But as a bonus, viewers also get dramatized ritual sacrifices of nuns as well as a snow machine, the latter of which is certainly a welcome touch given the city’s recent hellish conditions.