ORIGIN — Origin (review)

ORIGIN — Origin album cover Album · 2000 · Technical Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Origin" is the eponymously titled debut full-length studio album by US, Kansas based death metal act Origin. The album was released through Relapse Records in July 2000. Origin was formed in 1997 by guitarists/vocalists Paul Ryan and Jeremy Turner. The band went through a couple of lineup changes in their early years, but the lineup who recorded "Origin" are in addition to the two above mentioned, Doug Williams (bass), John Longstreth (drums), and Mark Manning (vocals).

Stylistically the music on the album is technical brutal death metal. The musicianship is outstanding and the album features more than one jaw-dropping moment of virtuosic bliss. Razor sharp riffs and lightning fast drumming. The vocals are predominantly unintelligible deep growling, but there are also higher pitched screams thrown in for good meassure. It´s incredibly intense and brutal death metal played with great technical skill.

The vocals are a bit one-dimensional both in phrasing and rhythm (often delivered in staccato attack mode), so that part of the music is actually pretty standard for the genre and nothing out of the ordinary. The instrumental part of the music is slightly more original, but mostly in the drumming department. Longstreth was at this point relatively fresh out of his stint with Angelcorpse, and listeners familiar with the aggressive blackened death metal assault of that group, won´t be surprised by the skill and creativity of the man´s drumming. He is one of those rare extreme metal drummers who are able to bring something new and creative to the genre.

The material on the 9 track, 29:46 minutes long album is well written for the style. It´s brutal, technical, and effective, but there is an issue with variation between tracks. Even after repeated listens it´s still hard to tell the tracks apart, and although each individual track is high quality technical brutal death metal, more catchy memorable moments and more variation between tracks, could have elevated the album to a higher level.

So "Origin" is a high quality release on some areas, and need some improvement in others. Overall it´s a quality release though, featuring a detailed and powerful sound production, excellent musicianship, and some decent songwriting (with the reservations mentioned above). A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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