UMUR
"Iniquitous" is the debut full-length studio album by US (Pennsylvania) death metal act Rottrevore. The album was released in 1993 by Drowned Productions. For now it remains the band´s sole album release as they disbanded in 1995. They reunited shortly in 2009 to play the New Jersey Death Metal Fest in October 2009, but ended up cancelling their show. As of 2011 Rottrevore have reunited again.
"Iniquitous" was recorded over just two days in February 1993 at Audiomation Studios, Pittsburgh with engineer Joe West. The album was released through the Spanish label Drowned Productions and only pressed in 1000 copies before the label closed down business. Drowned Productions would become Repulse Records and later Xtreem Music. So the original CD pressing of "Iniquitous" is a rather rare and also sought after item. Bootleg vinyl copies surfaced in the spring of 2009.
The music on the album is old school US death metal. It´s of the (predominatly) mid-paced and raw type of death metal with a completely unintelligeble growling vocalist in front. The muffled and raw sound production makes the listening experience a dark and obscure one. The atmosphere and the old school aestethics are some of the assets of the album. The sound production doesn´t exactly bring out the best in the tracks though. The guitars lack power and the bass drums have a low thudding sound. The fact that the band have a pretty one-dimensional sound and that the tracks aren´t easy to tell apart, doesn´t make the experience much better. Add to that musicianship that isn´t top notch and you have a pretty standard death metal album.
...so "Iniquitous" might be a rare find and a sought after item, but I wouldn´t call it a hidden gem. To me Rottrevore just seems like another death metal act from the early- to mid nineties that didn´t sound original and didn´t write memorable material and as a consequence didn´t succeed. This isn´t bad by any means, it´s just death metal by the numbers. A 2.5 star rating is warranted.