UMUR
"Passage" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Milwaukee, Wisconsin based death metal act Viogression. The album was released through Tombstone Records in 1992. Viogression were a relatively shortlived act who were active in the years 1988 - 1992. In that period they recorded two demos and two full-length studio albums. After Viogression disbanded several of the members went on to form the even more shortlived industrial/thrash metal act Medusa Oblongada.
The music on "Passage" pretty much continues down the same old school death metal path as the music on "Expound and Exhort (1991)". It´s simple, brutal, and mostly mid-paced death metal with a vocalist that has a voice and growling delivery very similar to the voice and growling delivery of John Tardy (Obituary). Instrumentally it´s also Obituary that I´m mostly reminded of. But that´s pretty much where the comparisons stop, because Viogression doesn´t possess anything resembling the class of Obituary. The riffs on the album are generally forgettable and lack any form of groove or punch and the few solos on the album are not very well played. The drumming is organic, but sounds slightly untight. A positive is how Barry Jaeger plays his blast beats though. It´s fascinating how he accentuates his snare drum hits. Interesting blast beat style for sure, but it doesn´t save the overall drumming style from sounding a bit amaturish. It´s ultimately the vocals that save the day because the instrumental part of the music is generic at best, and poor at worst.
So my impression of the album isn´t that positive, and that feeling is further enchanced by the weak and thin sounding production. Add to that songwriting that´s only occasionally interesting and generally lacks hooks, and you got another release by Viogression that ends in the mediocre death metal album catagory. I´ll play nice and say that "Passage" is slightly better than "Expound and Exhort (1991)" and therefore award it with a 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating, but overall it´s not a particularly good quality release.