Death Motif, hailing from Austin, play a vicious brand of noise, rock, and black metal with a hint of doom. Self-professed, they are dirty “black ‘n’ roll” metal. And personally, I couldn’t agree more on the sound of their second EP, The Water. The band has one other EP under their belt which has a rough around the edges, death-rock sound and hints in spots to black metal and sludge. Since its release in 2014 the band has honed their sound to a leaner, meaner, and more fully realized approach that fans should be excited about.

Three tracks are all we get on this EP. Not a lot of time for a band to make an impression, but Death Motif go straight for the jugular in the opener and title track. The band takes noise to a calculated extreme with the layered and dissonant riffing along with the angular drumming approach which shoots the sound at you from all directions. The vocals are an aggressive and growled mix of hardcore and haunting melody.

“His and Hers” comes off, in the early moments, as a possible candidate for riff of the year. A post rock outfit, Death Motif, write surprisingly emotionally charged guitar riffs. Not to allow much comfort, the band swiftly gets back to business with much the same kick in the pants as the opener.

The closing track of the three is also the longest. As a result, “Slow Dance” is where the band truly shines. Doom pacing and a death metal thickness permeate the opening minutes here and show the growth of the band over their first EP. These first few minutes are played extremely tightly and sound better than they have to this point. Just as they hinted at black metal before, they showcase a passage here that is also tightly wound with full speed double kick drumming and tremolo picking. A searing solo makes the bridge between high speed riffing and the closing minute or so of slower paced, densely weaved death-n-roll.

The band lists High On Fire, Immortal, and Rush as influences. I would say this allows a good idea of the headspace the band is in and, at the least, an idea of their sound. This EP succeeded in making a quick impression on me and shows a lot of promise for a hopefully impending full length.

– Josh

The Water is self released and will be available September 10 on Bandcamp. For more information on Death Motif visit the band’s Facebook page.