In taking influence from popular bands with a wide breadth of influences Begat the Nephilim represent an ever-fluid cherry picked glom of styles that amounts to a serviceable opener for any and all of thier idols. The dramatic layers of Fleshgod Apocalypse and modern Cryptopsy-core would clash if the band wasn’t so highly capable in terms of deathcore informed The Black Dahlia Murder-esque melodic death metal. [deep breath] ‘Begat the Nephilim I: The Surreptitious Prophecy / Mother of the Blasphemy’ has an underlying late 90’s melodeath bounce that anchors their various adventures with a Sins of Omission style hop. As admirably ambitious as their debut is, it misses out on forming it’s own identity in service of a few too many sub-genre nods.

The opener “L’Inizio” should serve as adequate primer for what Begat the Nephilim will cover across the nearly 50 full minutes of their debut. Deathcore growls, piggy squeals, melodeath rasping, wailing guitar solos, and chug-tastic riffs over drumming almost entirely informed by brutal death structures. “Cardboard Casket” rubs itself like a slug across the back of TBDM and shows hints of some of the choice technical lead guitar work that pops up throughout the album. For all of the decent moments of brutality throughout ‘I: The Surreptitious Prophecy / Mother of the Blasphemy’ it is the more atmospheric and mid-paced sections that are most memorable. “Drek” is a great example of the band dropping some of their brutal hammering and breathing a bit, adding some much needed atmosphere to the otherwise relentless first half.

“Mobin” is a standout composition almost acting as a melodic death aesthetic overlay for a technical/brutal death metal akin to early Archspire. It is also where I started to lose interest in the band’s sound as a whole and felt that they’d exhausted their options across the almost eight minute song. It’s a shame because some of the most interesting lead guitar work is packed into the two part “Apotheosis of the Apocalypse” finale. Though I think the album needed stronger drum production, the sound is very flat ’03 deathcore-ish, and a more unified approach would help in terms of coherence Begat the Nephilim have crafted a decent ‘meta’ extreme metal style well-fit for global touring.  Should appeal to fans of melodic death, deathcore, and modernized variants of both.

The face of the ground. 2.75/5.0

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