Imperishable - Deathspawn EP

Fangs elegantly rending flesh. 

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on January 2nd 2022) 

They say that the more things change the more they stay the same. If there’s one thing that has remained stable despite the advent of 2022 it’s that I love Swedish death metal. The style has become a favourite of mine over the past few years, second only to caverndeath. Something about the guitar tone just makes me want to devour any release that can be described as “Inspired by Entombed and Dismember”. The good thing is that there’s an incredible wealth of bands that draw from that well. The bad thing is that said wealth leads to a lot of bands becoming indistinguishable due to how samey they are. Thankfully, Imperishable’s Deathspawn EP manages to stand out from the pack, in no small part due to breaking away from the genre’s usual trappings.
As you might have already gathered, the band draws a lot from the Stockholm scene, more specifically Dismember. What’s really interesting though is that they draw from their later, and more melodic influenced era, circa The God That Never Was. Imperishable, like their (presumed) idols effortlessly blends the aggressive buzzsaw riffing with leads brimming with melody, which most modern bands in the style avoid in favour of pure aggression. Said blend can be seen throughout the EP, though it can be felt more on the longer tracks, like “Teeth of the Hydra” and “Fangs”, where the band has more room to develop their ideas and mix grinding death metal with NWOBHM-inspired leads and riffs.
The production is one of the few sore spots this release has. While the instruments themselves don’t sound bad, the mixing does them a bit of a disservice. The bass is for the most part buried under the roaring guitars, and doesn’t have much of a presence, while the kick drums are sadly all but inaudible. It’s a shame, because as mentioned previously, they don’t sound bad in a vacuum, It’s just that the mix does them dirty.

There’s also the matter of the title track being the weakest song here. Now, while having a weak song in a release is to be expected in most cases, they tend to stand out more in EPs. “Deathspawn” doesn’t stay in one place for long enough to make an impression, and coupled with the fact that it’s the shortest song here it fails to stand out when compared to the other 3 songs. The riffs presented aren’t bad in and of themselves, but the fact that they’re barely given any room to develop ends up hurting the song in the long run.

Deathspawn is an extremely promising release, and a small breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale scene. While not perfect, Imperishable’s love for the more melodic aspects of the style make them worth keeping an eye on in the near future. There’s a lot to dig into here, and the idea of seeing a full length where a lot of the problems here are worked out sounds quite exciting.
Highlights: Teeth of the Hydra, Fangs

Rating: 76%

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