Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Paragoria
Label: On Parole Productions
Release: year_month
Length: 44:00
Rating: 4/5
I know, I’m repeating myself like a broken record, but there’s really no end in sight to the fertility of the Slovenian metal scene. I can’t remember a year as productive for Slovenian metal as this one: the number of studio (!) albums released has already passed ten, and a not insignificant number of demos has dropped on top of that. If Slovenian metal bands were falling apart overnight not so long ago, today they’re putting out quality studio records overnight! One of them recently came floating down the Savinja, too – Decomposition of Mind counts Rečica ob Savinji, the hometown of Paragoria, as its birthplace.
Even though Paragoria have officially existed only since 2011, a third of the lineup are old hands who previously played in the band’s predecessor, The Scourge. In August 2008 they put out the warmly received demo From the Ashes, which showed the band as a dynamic death/thrash outfit – but the guys didn’t stay put for long. A good two years later, after a drummer change, they swapped the name, built on the death/thrash skeleton with elements of other genres as Paragoria, and rose from the ashes with a proper studio debut.
The very first moments of the album announce that Paragoria have bumped the professionalism up a big notch. After the airy intro, Abortion hits brutally and uncompromisingly, sweeping the floor with Swedish-sounding death/thrash with the Bay Area thrash melodicism of the From the Ashes demo. Well, not quite, since thrash still remains a sort of foundation, around which Paragoria add plenty of new building blocks from all sorts of metal genres. Decompostion of Mind winds like the bed of the Savinja between thrash metal, groove rapids, brutal death metal descents, progressive twists and slow sludge/doom moments. All of it wrapped in a thick layer of modern sound and the tricks of more modern metal, but far from sounding sterile and whiny like American, MTV-friendly »metal.« No, on their debut Paragoria tip their hats to the influence of bands like Morbid Angel, Cynic, Sepultura, Machine Head, Atheist, Slayer and Gojira. Sounds schizophrenic? Maybe, but the band has nailed the perfect balance between all those genres and put together an effective, well-oiled conglomerate.
It works first and foremost thanks to the band’s outstanding instrumental performance, which stays coherent and reliable despite the variety of influences, and amid all the richness of sound, the most important thing is that its essence doesn’t get lost. The riffing of guitar duo Primož Brezovnik/Matjaž Parfant seriously torments your ears with a proper meat grinder of riffs that can sound as brutal and blasphemous as Morbid Angel, and just as dissonant and modern as France’s Gojira. Despite the parallels, Paragoria don’t sound like a generic knockoff, because what saves them from the flood of same-sounding bands is precisely their deft blending of genres, which bubbles up mostly through the guitar work. A wonderful example is Perilous Thoughts, which has both »classic« death metal riffing and modern, chopped-up »meshuggish« riffs and dissonant sounds. This very cohesion of genres is probably the album’s greatest strength, and it’s also blessed with one of the better rhythm sections in the country. If Jernej Štorgelj can boast the best bass tone on a Slovenian metal record (next to Gonoba), grinding everything in its path (and playing lively and dynamic as a storm on top of that), Matija Kadliček is definitely a hidden drumming gem. His drumming holds the songs together like glue and shows off a splendid palette of drumming techniques, from earthquake-level blast beating to fantastic transitions packed with excellent, varied ideas. Repetition, boredom and Matija’s drumming simply do not belong in the same sentence. But a band’s instrumental side can be as good as it gets, and a bad vocalist can still cloud it completely. Here, too, Paragoria do a great job – there isn’t just one vocalist, the sonic assault is carried by two. While Matjaž handles a deep growl reminiscent of David Vincent and Max Cavalero, Jernej screams raw and aggressive in higher registers that in places recall the fury of Tom Araya (strongest in Myth of Justice and the scream »Retaliation!!!«), and the dynamic of the double vocal attack adds even more value to the album.
Decomposition of Mind can be quite a mouthful for a listener used to classic metal genres, since it’s not just an extremely complex and almost baroquely rich album. It’s also marked by a strong modern touch, with an exceptionally polished sound front and center. But if you stick with it, listening pays off, because the album offers plenty of surprises that only reveal themselves after repeated spins, which gives it a lot of »replay« value too. Maybe the record would still benefit from a somewhat shorter running time, at least a track or two fewer, the ones that don’t leave much of an impression. Still, Paragoria deserve congratulations for an extremely potent formula that could have flopped completely, yet the result on Decomposition of Mind is so good that its equation successfully decomposes your brain, too.
Lineup
Matjaž Parfant – vocals, guitar
Jernej Štorgelj – vocals, bass
Primož Brezovnik – guitar
Matija Kadliček – drums
Production
Paragoria
Tracklist
1. Abortion
2. Perilous Thought
3. Devoured By Artificial Guilt
4. Embryo
5. From Carcass To Soil
6. Human Mecha
7. Mass Massacre
8. Moribound Inborn
9. Myth of Justice
10. Last Wish
