Perverse Dependence
The Patterns of Depravity Review
The Pattern of Depravity is a very different album of brutal death metal. It is a nonstop riff and syncopation showcase that demands your attention for it’s twenty-five minute duration. It’s an album comprised of short, approximately one and a half minutes songs, each of which features wildly twisting additive meter hooks in exotic modes—like the best hooks Dallas Toler-Wade contributes to Nile.
For the most part, a Perverse Dependence “song” sounds like one long and bewildering riff, albeit one that has a few moments of repetition. A lot of the drumming precisely mirrors these (approximately) ninety second riffs note for note—chiseling every chug with a snare hit/ride hit combination and accenting syncopated chords with crashes, so there is never a moment when something other than the riff takes the stage. And although there are lots of blastbeats on this album, these are interspersed throughout the riffsongs at moderate and rockin’ speeds, and most of the music—even the parts with blastbeats—seems mid-paced, albeit very detailed.
To be clear, the description of this album does not sound like something I would actually like—seventeen short tracks of brutal death metal with odd time signatures, occasional hardcore riffs, and very technical drumming—and that is part of my fascination with this release: It somehow works.
The short duration and ongoing intensity of each song brings to mind grindcore, but Perverse Dependence achieves the same thing in a brutal death metal context on The Pattern of Depravity. I’d prefer a bit more repetitions to break up the non-stop fretboard and drum gymnastics, but it works as is. Fans of short Nile tunes like Smashing the Antiu and The Howling of The Jinn are advised to get this one.