After five years of toiling around in obscurity in their native Canada, brutal death metal newcomers Paroxsihzem,  with the help of  Dark Descent Records, have re-unleashed onto the world, their 2010 self-titled debut full-length album. Sporting a raw, crude production, the album is a whirlwind of vicious riffs, raucous noise and sheer nastiness. In short, it’s virtually everything anybody ever wants for an old school type of death metal record.

Deep, guttural vocals are the recipe for disaster on Paroxsihzem, and each song is a relentless beast in itself. Regardless of whether the band is hammering away at breakneck speed or via slower, crushing chunks, Paroxsihzem is here to bludgeon everybody’s ears. If their purpose was to make an album that somewhat paralleled vintage Incantation or Suffocation, et al, they pulled it off remarkably well.

However, that doesn’t always constitute a mighty album. For all the positives with such a grimy, nasty album as Paroxsihzem, it doesn’t offer anything unique in terms of style, arrangements or delivery. Yes, the album is a cornucopia of barbarity, but the songs run their collective course about halfway through the duration. What it boils down to is that if you’ve heard the first two tracks on Paroxsihzem, you’ve essentially heard the final five.

Taking nothing away from the Toronto-based quartet; they wear their influences proudly on their sleeves. The guys also don’t try to be overly technical or cute just because it’s the cool thing to do these days. They also haven’t added any lousy clean vocals, symphonic elements or any of that jazz. Rather, they’ve opted to the take the same paths as the aforementioned Incantation and others and that is simple, rampaging death metal. The only true drawback is that Paroxsihzem and their debut album offer absolutely nothing new to the scene.

For the death metal junkies out there who need to scoop up everything the genre offers, this album will most certainly whet your palates. But for those who look for some sort of variance or originality within their death metal, they’re advised to sample a song or two or simply keep moving.

[Visit the band's website]

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