Seethe - Departures

Industrial metal act Seethe is new to the game in a sense, but not in a different essence. Founded by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based artist Patrick McElravy, the man has a history in the project 9 Stitch Method as vocalist and as the owner of Brutal Business Entertainment. He has continued his vocal duties into a new project titled Seethe. While not necessarily having a solid line-up, Seethe writes, records, and performs the vocals on the project while partnering with other producers within the industry. His debut EP under Seethe featured COLE THE KING as producer, while his follow-up and debut full length album "Abstract Thoughts" featured six additional producers in total. This method continued onto his next EP "Abstract Thoughts : Monologues" and has been applied to his latest album "Departures". 

"Departures" then, begins with the track 'Beg' produced by Death Dealer. That start of the song sounds as if I was about to walk into a venue, but the ferocity of the band's set was already seeping through the doorway and out into the streets above the venue. The song features growling vocals that never step-aside in their aural assault and a beat that goes through industrial, noise, and trap metal alike, and even features some dubstep inspired wubs. The minute and a half track 'Stain', produced by Abnormal, continues in the realm of noisy industrial metal though it includes a few eight-bit like sounds giving it a bit of a fucked-up, video game like sound. 



'Bury (ME)', produced by Moiiik, hit next on the album. Seethe's vocals are creeping and low at first, and the backing synths lent an air of horror and suspense. 'Fate (In My Hands)' quickly turned into one of my favorite songs on the album; there's a ton of rhythm found within and I feel as if Seethe and Frozenwitches worked off of each other's strengths very well. 'Sempiternal' also had a horror vibe about it thanks to the minimal sound on display during the first thirty seconds; a piano chord strikes every so often and other glitchy noises soon make their presence known, but not in an obtrusive way. When Seethe's vocals come in low, I knew that all hell was about to break loose. That happened after the thirty seconds where I was met with a heavy electronic overture. 

'Pig Thick', produced by Prxfit, had a layer of static ambiance that introduces us to the beat alongside a John Carpenter-esque piano rhythm. This lingers in the background throughout the entirety of the song as the usual big beats rolled on through. I loved it. Further noisy and glitchy mechanics are found within 'Heave', produced by NXISE. I was not a huge fan of some of the shouting found within 'Cleansing' produced by Jolt, as it reminisced stereotypical shouts from a death metal bands. This occurred around the one-minute and forty-second mark and made me audibly sigh upon repeated listens. The final song on the album, 'Crimson', also produced by Death Dealer, is a wonderful outing to the album that keeps up the blistering pace, but also leaves out with a cinematic pass into the rain. 

My major complaint about the album comes from the bass. The best way I can correlate this statement is this: there are those who like bass, and there are those who like BASS. Seethe is a project that will appeal to those who like BASS. While it's not terrible, there are moments in the album where I felt as if the bass was too overpowering and did not let me enjoy the other sounds within the songs, and this complaint stayed throughout the entirety of the album. Even if I was listening to the album through my headphones, there were moments where I had to turn down the volume. When I did that, I felt as if the bass sounded normal, but everything else was too quiet. 

Seethe's "Departures" is quite an invigorating album. It's heavy, dark, and energetic, and I can easily see this album fueling my next workout at the gym. The nine tracks never overstay their welcome, with the longest song on the album lasting two-minutes and fifty-seconds. There are some tracks, such as 'Stain', that I wish were extended a bit longer, but I'd rather a song end on a good note rather than trying to do too much. As stated a paragraph above, the bass within Seethe's music does need some work, but I'm sure a little fine-tuning will take care of that in no time. For all that said, I give "Departures" a well-deserved seven out of ten! 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
May 30 2021