A Life Not Worth Living

Death Karma is a new band from the Czech Republic which consists of two members and some months before they released their first work called “A Life Not Worth Living”. Although the band is together for less than two years, its members have a lot of experience inside music the last few years by participating in various other bands. This EP contains four tracks of overall duration of eighteen minutes. By the artwork, the logo and the pictures pf the band, the listener can understand that he is going to listen a ritualistic Death/ Black Metal, violent but atmospheric. Eventually, the music of Death Karma is not very far from that hypothesis as it moves between Death and Black paths, but without to limit themselves only to those two.

Surely, here we come across atmospheric and ritualistic elements that they are not so many as we would expect. The riffs are moving into Death/ Black style, other times heavy and rhythmic and other times brutal and fast which brought to my mind Demoncy and their special style. The atmosphere is dark, while depending on the part it is dark and violent or dark and heavy. But all this combined with the energy that comes out by the Thrash influences which are quite heavy and they play an important role inside the compositions. The tracks are evolved through normal length (four to five minutes each), so they don’t become tedious for the listener. Also their structure with the changes in style, in atmosphere and in riffing to be done very normally, they make the listen easy and interesting.

What may puzzle somehow the listener is the sound. The production is very bass and a lot of parts, very dirty. Personally it didn’t bother me and I think that it matches to the style of the compositions and to their barbaric side. The mixture is balanced. Regarding the instruments, the band has done a quite good job. The guitar deliver the riffs with accuracy and power and the bass, that its sound is too intense, fills the compositions nicely by giving enough strength to the sound. The drums have much variety in their style of play, while they exhale certainty and stability. The vocals are heavy Death/ Black vocals which fit to the style of the compositions but they are not anything special. The lyrics are written in English but they are not contained in the cd. By what I could understand, they refer to death.

The experience that the band’s members have gained by their participation in other projects appears in the first work of Death Karma, offering a quite interesting and well done EP. For sure you won’t find anything original or unique in their music, but you will find a work of quite good quality that it worth your attention. Those of you who are searching Death/ Black with the old school Thrash references and you like the harsh and bass productions, it worth to listen and buy it.