Paroxsihzem - Self-Titled

Paroxsihzem

Self-Titled

by Spyros Stasis at 10 January 2013, 3:08 PM

PAROXSIHZEM is a Black / Death band from Canada and they have released their debut album (self-titled) through Dark Descent Records, a label that has lately been releasing extremely high quality albums on the extreme side of the Metal spectrum. And this is also the case with PAROXSIHZEM.

PAROXSIHZEM share a few similarities with fellow Canadian bands as ANTEDILUVIAN and MITOCHONDRION, in terms of aggressiveness and production-wise. But PAROXSIHZEM to me sounds like they are trying to fit in to their sound influences from both old American Death Metal scene and old European (mainly Swedish and Finnish) extreme Metal bands. There are parts in which they blast without any remorse, playing at extremely quick tempos, in which they add a few of the twisted riffs reminiscent of the old MORBID ANGEL sound (example the opening track, after the “Intro”, called “Vanya”) while other songs, like “Nausea” are much closer to the groove of the European scene, and then with some exciting twists like for example “Deindividuation”, in which the melody on the guitar parts of the song is quite haunting bringing back echoes of the Norwegian Black Metal scene.

Adding to their music a few samples (sounds like they are taken from movies), they manage to create a threatening and haunting atmosphere for the listeners, and they succeed in that also with the help of the production, which although is not really great it manages to add that extra ambience. This also is their only weak link in my opinion, because it seems to me like some of their parts (especially on the drums, the hats and cymbals for example) are lost behind the guitars. It does sound old school but I believe that with a bit of more clarity on the production the overall sound of the album would greatly improve without losing their old school vibe.

But still PAROXSIHZEM is able to bring some really well well-thought-out tracks, with the tempos interchanging (example the tempos changes on “Godot”), their ability to put different influences together and their sonically merciless songs, their debut album is surely one that you will enjoy if your interest lies on the extreme side of Metal. With the highlight of the album being the closing track “Aokigahara”, a nine minutes opus in which the bands puts everything that they represent together, I think that we are witnessing the start of a very intriguing new band.