With all the progress and evolution happening in death metal since a young generation of musicians discovered early mold-breakers such as Watchtower, Cynic, Death, and Atheist and started the tech death revival in recent years, there is also a reverse movement that has been steadily growing in size and shows no signs of abating either. This lowbrow genre, one which often bears the brunt of many a joke in the metal scene, is commonly known as brutal death. Ever wondered where bands like Despised Icon and Beneath The Massacre got their sound? Look no further. In the years since Baltimore’s Dying Fetus formed in 1991, not a single band has been as blatantly and hilariously imitated as them when it comes to this style. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, granted, but some would argue that a million identical-sounding bands that bark and blast can start to wear on the nerves. This can all be traced back to the ambassadors of slam-death fusing over-the-top brutality with infectious songwriting from the mid-90’s onward, and making their presence felt on the global scale with little help from others and a lot of do-it-yourself hardcore punk ethic that included self-financing tours, records, and merchandise. So while many blame Dying Fetus for coming up with a sound that too many have tried in vain to copy, this writer will address the here and now, and simply blame them for composing one of the finest extreme death metal albums of the year in “Descend Into Depravity.” The album marks nearly a decade since their landmark full-length and Relapse Records debut, “Destroy The Opposition,” was unleashed upon the underground and would bulldoze scene divisions like dominos, managing to crossover into the hardcore, punk, thrash, and grind worlds like few death metal bands have been successful at achieving before or since. One of the lead-off tours for the album featured direct support from 90’s hardcore heroes All Out War and one-time Boston hardcore kings Diecast, and Dying Fetus have only deepened their relationship with the hardcore scene since then, most recently completing a full U.S. tour alongside Hatebreed. Main composer, guitarist, and vocalist John Gallagher has always been outspoken in his appreciation for moshy, metallic hardcore, and covering a Next Step Up song live over the years (NSU would go on to influence the new wave of Baltimore hardcore, notably Trapped Under Ice) is one of many examples of his roots in the infamous movement. But as any longtime observer of music will acknowledge, the originators of movements tend to get obscured and even ignored by their successors, the plagiarizing of blues musicians at the inception of rock’n’roll which still resonates. Pair this with the current climate of endless Myspace bands congesting the music spectrum, and a band that once were geniuses and kings are now nobodies. Due in large part to Dying Fetus’ constant touring, perseverance, and refusal to give in despite a wildly unstable lineup since Kevin Talley, Jason Netherton, and Sparky “Washington Caps #1 Superfan” Voyles left the band to form Misery Index in 2001, they were never in danger of becoming nobodies in the very scene they gave birth to, but one could argue that since the career apex of “Destroy The Opposition,” Dying Fetus has been searching far and wide to relocate the fire that gave the band jaw-dropping visionary status they once had. Well, for those old death heads who have waited impatiently for a proper follow-up to that magical 2000 full-length and young jaded death metal connoisseurs alike, the day of reckoning is now here. “Descend Into Depravity” is the album people doubted Dying Fetus could create since the departure of Talley, Netherton, and Voyles. The album bears as many similarities to “Destroy The Opposition” as it does merits of its own for being a landmark death metal album, as the coming years will quickly prove.