The Demo Review:

	There are currently 1 Reviews of this Demo. Average Rating: 4
Demo Title: Dormant Strains Band Members: C. Danecek (bass/ vocals), D. Meath (drums/ secondary vocals), N. Peyer (guitars/ secondary vocals) Official Web Site for This Artist Email for This Artist Discuss on the Metal Judgment Web Board

Musashi's Review:
One thing you do not want to do is miss a deadline for a demo review. I saw Hel last night at the Relapse Contamination show and she was more than a little pissed about last week. Shakespeare said it best, "Hel hath no fury like a woman scorned." I lose either way! So I'm trying my best to get this demo review done on time.
Upon receiving this demo, Hel, Death, Redwolff and I all noticed that the return address was from a Boston neighborhood we were all intimately familiar with. Nostalgia! Then, we opened the package to look at the very nicely packaged demo and the indecipherable bio and hype sheet.
The following is an excerpt from the Virulence "Introspective Sketch" which came packaged with the demo.

The tripolar entity Virulence, coalesced by virtue of the common vision of the extreme, and the drive to achieve it. Using the tonal form of communication, the group draws influence from the norm-surpassing aspects of this type of information transfer. Consolidating these influences into one expressive force, Virulence strives for what can be described as HYPERSTYLED EXTREMISM. These influences include core features of grind, jazz, deathmetal, hardcore, and the avant-garde.

Redwolff said, "I don't know how you can mix those up and not get vomit." The "Sketch" goes on, but does not clarify anything. It is hard to take people seriously who go to great lengths to make themselves sound more important than they are. Hype is fine. Being clever is appreciated. However, this sort of nonsensical hyperbole is a waste of effort and paper.
Let me speak objectively for a moment. The demo does not sound as good as it looks. There are some noticeable glitches on the CD. They mixed it so you could hear everything. However, the instruments sound tiny and weak. I think they were going for a heavier sound but it comes across as rather brittle and annoying. Good enough for a demo, but I think they could do a lot better next time around.
Now for my subjective opinion. Virulence puts their music together in the same way they put their words together: putting notes and phrases together that don't necessarily belong together. Overall, I would say Virulence sounds like Dillinger Escape Plan meets Today Is The Day. They make you work for it. The music and lyrics do not necessarily follow your conventions of good and bad and are not easy to listen to. I appreciate the fact that they are playing hard, fast and technically challenging music. I dislike the fact they have the occasional 10 second mellow interlude of sus4 and 9th chords they learned in their "Chord Voicings 101" class at Berklee and then decide to say they have fused Jazz into their music. Virulence plays really fast and has good energy, but they screw it up with trying to be too clever. My advice is to stick to the hard, fast, psychotic episodes and throw the rest away.
I hate the vocals, but I'm sure some people will like it. I like being challenged but I do not want to have to work so hard to listen to an album. Furthermore, I generally prefer music that I can listen to at both loud and soft volumes; These vocals are bad at any volume.
I do not want to be the critic that they quote five years from now when Virulence is the next big band and they look back at the people that said it was just noise and they would never get anywhere. So I won't say it. Seriously, these guys can play and they are definitely going for that grindcore feel. If I were a fan of that particular flavor of metal, I would dig these guys. However, I like bigger, thicker production and somewhat recognizable vocals. I especially like good, old-fashioned songs. That's not what Virulence is about. They are about speed and intensity.
"Hyperstyled Extremism?" Get the fuck out of here! Put down the thesaurus and walk away from the computer. Go practice your scales and stop writing that stuff!

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