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QUESTION
Doomed Passages

Chaos (2014)
Rating: 8/10

Hidden under the shade of a rather bland moniker come Mexican death metallers Question. Having formed back in 2010, this quartet has only produced a couple of demos previous to this debut nine-track outing. If this rather raw offering is anything to go, however, then this bunch of extreme metalheads are a posse worth keeping an eye on.

This is excellent, earthy death metal featuring the guttural vocals of Marco Zavala, whose chesty style of growling and gurgling is well suited to a backbone of noise constructed by drummer Iván Sánchez, guitarist Rodrigo Gónzalez and bassist Héctor Sánchez.

These guys are certainly not attempting to reinvent the death metal racket initially created in such fashion by a bundle of bands back in the 80s and 90s, but this intriguing opus does well to not only reflect that great era, but also pulls enough punches to succeed on its own two feet.

Upon first listen, it’s clear that Question are more than capable of creating heavy death metal that is comfortable as a faster beast as well as a slower, more menacing leviathan – coupled with the hints of intricacy, Doomed Passages is quite a refreshing platter. It boasts a good number of high quality tracks which all sport that grating guitar chug, but there is such an air of the macabre about the percussion and darkly clad bass that this album really does shake the gravestones with its threatening behaviour.

The leads are daubed in melancholy, and the whole thing really comes together with the opening cut ‘Mournful Stench’. A juicy chunk of old school death metal, the track features some fantastic vocal grunts and a dismal melody hinting at all manner of bands, ranging from Carcass to Autopsy and from Morbid Angel to Atheist – especially with some of the more complicated passages.

Fans of any old school death metal band will enjoy this slab, which relies heavily on those low-tempo rumbles that have a lure of the sinister about them, enabling the riffs to nod alongside the precise percussion – the end result being some wickedly catchy passages and some truly grisly, gothic moments.

With ‘Nefarious Conclusion’, we have an unexpected funky bass intro matched by the jazz-fuelled drum twists; it’s the sort of unpredictable flavour which the likes of Death, Cynic, Atheist, Pestilence et al meddled with in the early 90s, such is the vigour and variation. Zavala remains a powerhouse throughout, lacing the entire record with his disagreeing bellows.

With ‘Through The Vacuous River’, Question provide an enigmatic instrumental – one which boasts a great deal of intelligence and yawning doom – while ‘Universal Path Of Disgrace’ ups the pace with a shuffling drum sound and deep, riveting orgy of grinding guitar and solid bass.

In a sense, the dryness of this opus reminds me of the Finnish approach to death metal. There’s certainly an influence of Convulse throughout, although it’s fair to say that just like equally impressive death metallers Derogatory, Question have fused various influences to somehow create their own jarring assault on the nerves.

If it’s twisted, unpredictable and clever death metal you are after, then look no further than this beast which is more than happy to explore the deep, dark realms of the philosophical just like it’s 1992 all over again!

Neil Arnold

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