You can always tell you’re dealing with a serious band when, just 4 years since their inception, they can already boast slots at Maryland Deathfest, Southwest Terror Fest and tour support for Cattle Decapitation. Couple that with a line-up which contains members of Samothrace, Skarp and Book of Black Earth and you wonder if they can meet a bar already set so high. Enter Theories, a 4-piece rising up from Seattle dragging with them hateful package of unrelentingly bleak death/grind metal with their debut studio album, Regression (Metal Blade).
Opener ‘Burnt Concrete’ quickly sets the tone and it barrages its way through chaotic drum parts while ‘Cycle of Decay’ follows with a huge depth of sound. Perhaps the strongest tracks on the album, ‘Shame’ and ‘Swimming in Mud,’ show off the band’s ability to really pack in some seriously mid-paced riffing, giving a listener a glimpse at their dissonant experimental touches that really help set them apart from others on the scene. Despite the variety within each song however, there remains a flow within the album that really holds it together making this an album that is not only formidable track to track, but holds its own as a complete entity also.
While Regression can boast every tick box on the high-end grind list: technical brilliance, great production, and huge get on or get hurt sound, I spent most of the album waiting for it to really rip me off my feet. Usually an album of this quality would warrant a flawless review, but for this group there’s the constant nagging sense that Regression could have been much more than the final product. For a first album however it still packs the explosive and devastating quality of a nail bomb and I for one can’t wait to see what this band have to offer given more time and experience.
8.5/10
CAITLIN SMITH