Review: Dead World Reclamation – Aura of Iniquity

Style: Melodic Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Review by: Callum
Country: US-AZ
Release date: 23 April, 2021

There is nothing inherently bad about Dead World Reclamation or their latest release, Aura of Iniquity. This record is a more than appreciable blend of melodic and technical death metal with the added incorporation of orchestral and choral elements that sum up to a solid, polished piece of work. If you think of it as a birthday cake, all the ingredients are in there at precisely the right measurements, nothing added, nothing missing. It’s definitely a birthday cake. There are no sprinkles, no surprise salted caramel filling, no sparklers. It’s just a perfectly fine vanilla cake. Is my cake metaphor pushing too many boundaries for you? Nothing wrong with a vanilla cake with plain white frosting you say? Then this album might work for you. Sweets aside, this band is clearly able to write a decent song, and the technical skill of each player is unquestionable. I fear that a lack of innovation, specifically in song structure and atmosphere building, will leave a lot of modern melodeath bands behind like a birthday gift played with once and then left, forgotten, collecting dust at the bottom of the toybox. Thought I was done with birthday references? Just wait.

Aura of Iniquity is also fairly long at nearly 50 minutes for each song to be roughly structured the same and averaging almost exactly 5 minutes each. I won’t say they could have trimmed the fat in places as there aren’t exactly a lot of rough edges to trim. Each track is well contained and not bookended by much filler, interludes or extended intros or outros to speak of. Furthermore, none of the tracks are of a lesser standard than the rest, however none stand head and shoulders above the rest either. The distinguishing features between each track comes down to the lyrical content. The album is practically an anthology of short Lovecraftian stories, each track revolving around one ‘greatest hit’ of the genre. “Ripped from the Grave”, for example, concerns the protagonist being cursed to an endless undeath by a necromancer to be used in his army of the undead. In “Embrace the Hive”, the character’s nervous system is arrested as they breathe in spores that connect them to a singular consciousness. There is a secret vampiric cabal running the government, media and economy behind the scenes in “Pantheon of Shadows”, and a kingdom of flesh eating spiders in “Arachnocratic Assemblage”. Despite the music itself not moving me quite so much, I found myself excited to find out what kind of eldritch horror would feature in the next track. The lyrics spinning these yarns are mostly well written, with chestnuts like “each jugular, plucked like the string of a harp.” They become slightly too on-the-nose in other places; “Your heads of finance, CEOs / Vampiric leaders, your heroes” lacks the poetry and nuance present in most other tracks.

There are a few too many allusions to a certain melodeath behemoth to be purely coincidence. Words like ‘unhallowed’, ‘deflorate’, ‘miasma’, ‘evergloom’ that feature in the lyrics are surely subtle tributes to The Black Dahlia Murder, upon whom Dead World Reclamation could well be modeling their brand of horror-movie-death-metal. The vocal style of Conner Posz also seems to emulate Trevor Strnad’s unique ability to switch from raspy screeches to deep, guttural growls on a dime. Posz’s variety of styles and tones and the skill he has for delivering them are what save this album from being totally forgettable. They’re what keep this cake moist and fluffy from the first bite to the last (told you). His mastery of bread and butter growls and shrieks is apparent from the outset of the first track, but, as the album progresses, brand new vocal tones gradually emerge. There’s a notable shift in vocal pitch when the protagonist from the aforementioned “Embrace the Hive” finally succumbs to the control of the hivemind. A dry, yet deep and remarkably clear growl materialises in “The Everlasting Hunt” in each short verse. His spoken word sample at the end of “Arachnocratic Assemblage” actually sounds similar to Mikee Goodman of SikTh. Tempo changes between the verse and chorus during “Whispers of the Evergloom” play with the dynamics of the song effectively where the vocals are quieter and more restrained but still dramatic in the long and wordy verses and each syllable is perfectly placed. Finally, in “Those Born Of Suffering”, the voice that addresses the spectre that takes children born of incest that would normally be thrown to the wolves under its wing is almost bitonal, in the vein of Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation.

While the vocals are the clear saving grace of Aura of Iniquity, the instrumentation isn’t technically poor. However, nothing particularly stands out other than a few well placed and enjoyable, but predictable, guitar solos. Stylistically, Dead World Reclamation are an exciting band, but they would need to innovate further to stand out among their contemporaries. Playing more on atmosphere and challenging the common song structures they seem to be stuck on would be a start. The anthology of short and intriguing stories is a great way of showcasing their lyrical talents, but if they repeat this approach in the future it may lose its flavour.

Recommended tracks: Arachnocratic Assemblage, Embrace the Hive, Heralds of the Formless One
Recommended for fans of: The Black Dahlia Murder, Job for a Cowboy, Within the Ruins
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Dead World Reclamation is:
Conner Posz (vocals)
Dakota Fidler (guitar)
Mark Gray (drums)
Alexander Beltz (bass)
Andre Lothian (guitar, orchestration)