Profanity's trajectory have gone from regular death metal to technical death metal since their forming in 1993; well, that's 3 decades and maybe they went with progress and wanted to sound contemporary rather than stay in the 1990's time loop forever. This German band have four full-length albums and a couple of splits and this EP under their belt. This EP marked the end of one era, as their then bassist left and they still wanted to get these three songs out.

This is 20+ minutes of chaos, in my mind. The band serve so many tempo changes here that I never managed to find any red thread. Often it sounds garbled and jumpy like hell, but there are nice changes where mutations begin on previous part already and more fluidly transform into something else (like the last 2½ minutes of the closer). The opener contains something like chorus, I presume, but the other two songs are more progressive. But oh so often I feel like after 10 seconds, some other song begins to play! I also do not fathom quantum physics, and understanding this need a calculator as a brain, really. There are some great bits and bolts, but as a whole I feel it is just clutter. Mainly, the music is aggressive, but there are different peculiar vistas here and there for observation.

These guys are very skilled with their instruments, no doubt about it. The guitars are about hacking riffs, melodious riffing, swift freatboard runs and alien chord patterns. The bass guitar goes from juggenaut-ish to jazzy and wacky as heck. The drumming is strong and there's so many beats that I lost my count after 100... First, it's blasting like no tomorrow and then suddenly it halts into not straight slower patterns, then it's time for fast non-straight stuff; tempo change hell. The vocals are rather plain yet robust enough throat growl, and at times doubled, but fit the bill. At times, synthesizer was utilized, and it opens up a portal to more atmospherics to enter the game. As a whole, this sounds thick, and everything has its' place in the mix. It looks great, thanks to Jon Zig inspired artwork.

This must have taken hours and hours to compose, rehearsal and record. I still find it very fragmentary. If you want to inspect some chaotic technical death metal, this certainly offers some. It's highly skilled, as mentioned, but still way "out there" for my brain.

Rating: 5½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/15/2023 14:09