Rock Music Critic

	Centinex
	Decadence - Prophecies of Cosmic Chaos

	I've been listening to heavy metal for somewhere around twenty years now, and in my time I have heard A LOT of metal music. Since starting this site I hear even more music than I normally would hear in the course of my day to day life. This has the unfortunate result of making me very picky when it comes to doling out praise for new music. Before I started writing reviews if a band didn't grab my attention right away (by either crushing me with their monstrously awesome sound or by being unique in some way) I tended to write them off after a cursory listen. Several times I dismissed bands prematurely and wound up missing out on some good bands. So once I started reviewing, I vowed that I would keep my mind (and ears) open to the music I review. With this in mind I tried to be fair in my reviews, and perhaps some of my reviews so far have been a little too fair; overcompensating for my burnout with reviews that perhaps were not as harsh as the music deserved (Except of course Necrophagia, that still and always will SUCK.) When I first put in this disc a war inside my head began over what to write about this album. My first impression was that this was just one more typical death metal band; one more average speck in the legions of death metal bands out there. It's not the fact that there are lots of bad death metal bands around that makes these reviews hard, it's the fact that there are so many mediocre death metal bands. A band can be technically spectacular and still write boring music. While I like a good death growl, so many bands vocals sound the same, and there is no dynamic range to their guttural screeching. This can get old after a few song. So like I said, at first this album didn't feel like it would stand out from the hordes. There is certainly nothing innovative or unique about this album. However, this album IS very interesting, and thus begs further inspection. I really like the music on this disc. It gives a nod to old Slayer, and a little bit of At The Gates, but it has other interesting bits as well. The vocals could be a little more interesting, and maybe mixed a little higher to help them stand out, but I have heard worse. Technical proficiency is not an issue here, they sound great musically. While the vocals are a bit typical it's the music that really makes this disc shine. So many death bands can play well without having anything interesting to say, and so while they play fast and tight, it's just doesn't hold my attention. Centinex however seem to have a bit of songwriting skill and manage to hold my attention for the duration of a song, and ultimately, the album. The production on this disc is pretty good. It's not crisp and over polished like some albums (which sometimes can be good, but sometimes not) but there is good separation and I can make out the different parts, so I'll give them bonus points for production. Overall I really like this disc and have to say that this is an above average death metal album. You could do much worse than this album (see Necrophagia.)