California’s Paroxysmal has been around since 2007, but up until this year they went by the name Paroxysmal Butchering. Their first two albums fell more into straightforward brutal death metal territory with bludgeoning riffs and guttural vocals, but 2019’s Amygdala found them shifting away from some of the slams in favor of a mix of brutal, blackened, and old-school death metal. The name change seems to tie in further with this shift in sound alongside lyrical content that covers a bit more than your average gore and violence, and this is reflected on their latest effort Force Feeder. With songs that seamlessly move from much more black metal influenced riffs to melodic and brutal death metal, there’s a lot to take in across the album’s seven songs and the band covers a bit more ground than you might expect.
Looking at the cover artwork for Force Feeder, I don’t blame you if you hit play expecting to be greeted immediately with slams or a flurry of tech-death riffs. Instead, opening track “Awaiting Eruption” kicks things off in a more methodical manner with a slower riff that has a lot of black metal influence to it. There’s that familiar iciness to the tonality, and this continues as the tempo picks up speed after the first minute or so. It immediately reminded me of a number of the blackened death metal bands that have been on the Moribund Records roster over the past two decades, as there’s a similar balance of rawness and brutality to the recording that pops out. But around the halfway point there’s a shift in sound to riffing that’s a cross between melodic and technical death metal, and things get denser and even heavier when this happens. This is one of the areas where Paroxysmal stands out from some of the other bands out there, as Force Feeder often moves from black metal riffs over to melodic, technical, and brutal death metal riffs all in the course of a single song. Sometimes you get a bit longer period of cold, desolate atmosphere while other moments go for straight-up brutal riffs that bring back some of the Suffocation influence that the band showcased on their earlier albums. It’s a lot to take in, and there are admittedly a few transitions between the different styles of death metal that are a little awkward, but this diversity does work to Paroxysmal’s favor. Tracks like “Moments of Clarity and Insignificance” stand out thanks to their rollercoaster approach to riffs, where each one hits hard but quickly transitions over to something different without losing any intensity. The only other issue with Force Feeder is that some of the songs are a bit too long, as the six minute plus long ones do start to drag a bit and the title track feels overstretched at ten minutes.
The instrumentals may cover a wide spectrum of extreme metal, but the vocals keep things rooted firmly in death metal. But this doesn’t mean there isn’t variation to the performance, as Paroxysmal moves between low, guttural growls and higher shrieks and screams regularly. This is where I get a lot of the brutal meets melodic death metal vibes from, as the gutturals keep things rooted in the brutal/slam side while the raspy screams and shrieks give off more of a modern American melodeath feel. It’s appropriate then that the late The Black Dahlia Murder singer Trevor Strnad appears on “Ageless/Deathless”, providing his signature pitch to give even more diversity to the song. With plenty of back and forth between highs and lows, Paroxysmal is able to deliver strong vocal work for the entirety of Force Feeder.
Despite some awkward transitions and the longer songs dragging, I still really like what Paroxysmal is going for here. The shifts between the colder, abrasive blackened side and the brutality and sheer aggression of the death metal elements work well together and provide a style that’s slightly different than some of the other bands out there. A recent interview and Facebook comments from the band suggest that this material originated around the same time as Amygdala and that more is already in the works, so it’ll be exciting to see how they can continue to grow and expand upon what is an already diverse set of influences. Force Feeder is available from CDN Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg