Insidious Decrepancy - Extirpating Omniscient Certitude (Brutal Bands; 2009)

Shawn Whitaker is about as close to being a brutal death metal legend as you can get. The prolific Texan has been in numerous bands (Viral Load and Grotesque Formation probably being the most well known) and of course is the sole member of Insidious Decrepancy. Extirpating Omniscient Certitude is Insidious Decrepency's third album and you can tell Whitaker really knows what he's doing  as this is a high quality well recorded album.

One thing fans of the band may notice right away is that the extremely long song titles that characterized the first two albums are gone. Although I enjoyed such titles as "Surreptitious Misanthropy Voraciously Consuming Rationality Thus Invoking Dormant Sociopathic Desires" I am glad they didn't make a return as it was getting a little stale. Otherwise the anti-Christian aesthetic has remained pretty much the same.

The music on Extirpating Omniscient Certitude could be described in two words as technical TXDM. You've got all your chugging and rumbling slams of TXDM plus a lot of crazy, fast technical riffs. This works pretty well and Whitaker never lets the technical parts overpower the underlying slams. There's something satisfying about hearing a skilled guitarist play an intricate riff and then dive into some heavy slams. The drum programming and vocals are very good and clearly show the strength of Whitaker's experience. The production is also very well done and manages to be both clear and heavy which definitely suits the style found on this album.

If anything bad can be said about this album is that it never really reaches past being solid into being awesome. It could just be that this year has had some really good albums (Pathology, Human Rejection, Devourment among others) but Extirpating Omniscient Certitude doesn't quite reach the top tier. Still, it is consistently good album from a scene veteran who knows what he's doing and does it well.