The corridors of the affected mind are striated with scratch marks in steadily relenting frequency, evidence of the animalistic reactivity of the captive psyche in dissolution as it gradually surrenders to devolving cognition as the looming touch of death impends. A second open-torn disintegration of flesh in reveal of the artist’s decaying skull this sophomore full-length album from Portland, Oregon-area death metal quartet DECREPISY once again focuses on death and decaying faculties as meditative emission. Though new members, different voices, and some larger scale experiments help make ‘Deific Mourning‘ a truly different second LP the downtuned and groove-heavy trawl through each key rhythm links the listener to the bands initial grotesqueries. In some ways this amounts to a wild new experience from a changed band and in others it makes for a total drag down in the dirt, an uncomfortable collapse.

Decrepisy formed by way of guitarist Kyle House (Negative Prayer, ex-Vastum) circa 2019 after moving away from the Bay Area and eventually landing in Portland, quickly discovering new opportunities to work with drummer Charlie Koryn (Ascended Dead, Vrenth, et al.) and guitarist Jonathan Quintana (Coffin Rot, Ritual Necromancy) on a number of personal projects and a set of new death metal songs caught within his own vision of death worship. This’d naturally included the guitarist’s (and at the time vocalist) taste in the groated-up grime canon of classic death metal where Finnish death metal’s atmospheric classics, doomed shit like Cianide and Disma, and sledge carriers a la Rottrevore and Grave all fed into the jog-paced and at-times doomed fusion of their debut LP (‘Emetic Communion‘, 2021). It was an above-average record which I’d praised in review at the time with some praise for its use of surreal guitar tones, immersive ~7-8 minute pieces and demented performances which were stoked by stellar leads from Quintana.

While a lot of the standards and expectations set by the band’s debut fed into my own reception of ‘Deific Mourning‘ this second run features numerous changes which amount to an entirely different record which yet features a familiar compositional voice, particularly in terms of House‘s feature of the riff and the grooving ‘new old school’ death metal barbarism that sweeps through these shorter, increasingly surrealistic songs. Otherwise the inclusion of vocalist/lyricist Daniel Butler (Acephalix, Draghkar) feels like a familiar presence as much as his inclusion provides an extra deep push into the surreal side of Decrepisy‘s sound, switching it up beyond the more guttural and atmospheric reach of ‘Emetic Communion‘. This also allows House to lean into and exaggerate his interest in death rock, industrial, and dark ambient elements that’d been set in the vaguest periphery of the previous album’s atmospheric development. All of these changes make for a record is longer overall, shorter per piece, and even more uniquely stated than expected.

You’ll feel the unhinged doom and death coughed delirium from the first strike of the guitar on opener “Ceremony of Unbelief” with wriggling effects and discordant movement trailing within one another as the slow-chugged intro ceases. Butler‘s layered vocals are cast down upon the piece, a host of intrusive thoughts clouding and oppressing the air from Decrepisy‘s first impression ’til the sludgier dual guitar rhythms become the main focus of the song, leaving Quintana a few opportunities to strike with leads beyond downward shot wails. The scatterbrained scrawl of the solo around ~5:05 minutes in finds its footing in disarray and does well to serve the song’s strange on-the-spot tension. The suggestion is that the bulk of the songwriting, specifically the main rhythm guitar tracks, for this album were written during the process of recording. Writing and finishing each song one-by-one seems to have allowed for the atmosphere and accoutrement to arrive in ear first, making each piece bigger than the space the riffs ultimately are able to flesh out. The title track (“Deific Mourning”) is an excellent example of a protracted intro developing a cocoon around those bigger guitar parts, simpler trundling ‘old school’ early-to-mid 90’s death metal inspired movement which begins leaning the album toward a funereal (but not that slow) death/doom metal expression.

The sickening and the obtuse butt up against the serious-faced mortification experienced here on ‘Deific Mourning‘ in a belligerent way, all choices made to enforce rhythms that aim to convey ailment and hopelessness. Per my own experience Butler‘s performances naturally wrap around the weirder bits, inserting a variety of timbre and layers to add to Decrepisy‘s eerie drift but we are brought back down to the barbarism of down-tuned and lumbering death by House‘s riffs, bopping through mid-paced irregular grooves before lunging at slower steps in most every case. “Spiritual Decay 1/4 Dead” is the clearest showcase of this on the tracklist, a mid-album piece which doesn’t necessarily finish the thought it starts while still featuring each performer in their own entertaining momentum. From my point of view some of these songs needed more time to cook, more repetition to simmer within and most of them could’ve used a minute or two more to either finish the thought rather than press through. I definitely felt like the vocals, leads and atmospheric consideration carried the experience on repeated listens.

The lowest low, and the biggest highlight on the album for my own taste, “Corpseless” ends up being the prime-angled delivery upon what the opening piece had suggested wherein the cruel and psychotic atmosphere of this album is met with demented rhythms and guitar performances fit for a mind undone, untangling in real time. The fundamental pieces of the sound developed are all there, a spoken intro amidst grinding distorted bass introduces crypt-worthy guitar lines and minutes down the road there are bigger riffs served as final blows, an endpoint for Decrepisy‘s painful descent; The dark ambient psychosis which carries through the full listen is effectively stoked along the way but on my first pass through I’d not really felt like we’d hit the real greasefire of the LP ’til the grand finale, only to eventually realize it was too different to be an original. Those dragging low bass guitar chugs and a refreshingly doom-stricken expanse hits as an unexpected rendition of Sisters of Mercy‘s “Afterhours”, an experiment outside the lines of death/doom with that same industrial/dark ambient surrealism carried in its steerage.

Entertaining as this album is I want more riffs and no doubt sounding a bit like Vastum by proxy had me waiting for the rhythms to dig into, or at least lean into more than a few solid ideas before each song finished. What’d kept me interested and returning to the album was of course the performances overall, the atmosphere built within each song and the way it’d all carry through as a downward-cast collapse into sickness and suffering devolution. There is some emotionally driven conviction, some clear enough intent conveyed within the stretch of ‘Deific Mourning‘ and I’d appreciated how it was a different sort of death metal album but I don’t know if it survived microscopic analysis as well as it did being felt-out for its vibes. A moderately high recommendation.

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