Locusta
Dendromorphosis
Self-Released
Street: 05.06
Locusta = Death + Decrepit Birth + Arsis
With a few listens through this four-song EP release and my interest completely lacking, I looked backward. The Columbus, Ohio, tech/prog/death band has a full-length release, and surprisingly enough, the full-length sounded way more interesting than this set of tunes. The full-length, streamable on Bandcamp, was more tech and less prog. There’s a lot of guitar spank here and no real bang. It’s nice that the guys can nail those fancy time changes and as my guitar knowledge lacks, I’ll take a guess at calling them guitar sweeps. The songs represented here, even the first, which is a preview track of the bands’ upcoming album, all sound like a bunch of regurgitated later-era Death songs just played faster with a louder click track on the drumming. Yes, the five guys can play, but that’s about all they can do. –Bryer Wharton