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MASADA
Hideous Rot EP

Deathgasm (2013)
Rating: 5.5/10

Philadelphia’s Masada is one of at least five bands to use this moniker, but with Hideous Rot they should be standing out from the crowd.

This five-track mini-opus is the debut offering from this unsavoury bunch of death metallers, which boasts a contribution from the rather unique talents of flute player Clive Jones, famous for being part of mysterious UK rockers Black Widow. Jones is responsible for the rather odd ‘Fluteotherapy’, a track which seems to suggest that Masada are trying to be rather clever with this atmospheric interlude. Amidst the bruising death metal, however, it’s merely a novelty I could do without.

The mini-opus begins with the best track on the record in the form of ‘Hideous Cerebral Pulp’, the composition beginning as a rather formulaic death metal rattler until it resorts to a slower burning riff, which is accompanied by Cazz Grant’s rather sinister guttural groans.

There’s nothing too flashy about the track, Masada opting for a rather mediocre style of pounding death metal of varying pace. It’s nice that the outfit have attempted to inject some elements of weirdness amid the heavy drums and savage guitar work, however.

Hideous Rot is certainly of the old school death metal order, but it could also be argued that the EP is nothing more than that. The outing is just a rarely memorable composition lacking on production quality, which is its major fault such is the almost empty room sound of the whole thing.

With its jarring moments, ‘Exist To Rot’ is reasonable, but we’re back to the demo stages and quality with ‘Suffer Mental Decay’. In spite of its morbid atmosphere, ‘Suffer Mental Decay’ comes across as rather bland and out of sorts with itself, despite a few melancholic solos puncturing the gloom of that heavily flawed production.

The final track is ‘Toxic Unreality’, which begins with some effective guitar work. Even its initial pounding is effective and is coupled with some nice bass parts, but when you’ve grown up with the likes of Pestilence, Gorefest and Suffocation, bands such as Masada naturally seem extremely ordinary.

I do believe, however, that with some work Masada could rise from mediocrity to become a promising act. This time round they’ve trodden too much in muddy waters though, which in turn has let them down badly. With a number of tweaks a full-length opus could make for an interesting listen should they get it right, but if they fail to move with the times they could find themselves involved in a hard slog for recognition.

Neil Arnold

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