Accidental Suicide hail from Wisconsin and were formed at the end of the eighties and managed to release one full length in ’92 at a time where Death metal, despite its explosion still remained an underground genre as the band were quickly forgotten before finding a cult following and releasing a compilation in 2017. Accidental Suicide play a Death/Doom style that is firmly entrenched in many schools of Death metal and have managed to produce a minor gem that deserves an occasional spot on any Hessian’s playlist.
The base of this album consists of meat and potatoes tremolo picked riffs and slow cadenced power chord sequences. Supplementing the whole, the guitarists add impressive solos, synths that follow short arpeggiated passages, palm muted NYDM riffs and at times Speed metal derived riffs. Accidental Suicide seemed to be inspired by whatever they could get their hands on and absorb. Their note selection will change to match each riff type but can be condensed to being essentially chromatic with bursts of pentatonic and natural minor scale in between the chromaticisim so that a more conventional sense of melody can be used but with deteriorating the helplessness and fatalism that this record conveys.
The drums do well in imposing the basic rhythms but when there is a frantic section, they take all that freedom and excite the listener with caveman like fills that consist of smashing the toms as hard as possible in time while sometimes using the cymbals for additional noise. the vocals range from deep multi-tracked barks to higher gurgles in the style of John Tardy, an interesting high/low combination that is never used simultaneously to form interesting patterns. The high voice is only really present on “The Life I hate” and from then on is only featured in very short bursts. The bass gurgles in the back and has a few brief leads but for the most part is left to follow the rhythm guitars. Interesting is how thick the whole record sounds despite the band only being tuned down to C.
The arrangements utilize the riff maze within the Death/Doom format of going from fast and vivacious to slow and lifeless. Though the band may at times start with a slower idea, tempo remains the determining factor in how each riff will fit into place. Each composition will seek to push a sequence of frantic melodies often complimented with solos that will eventually decompose towards the song’s final and central melody of cadenced power chords. “Unknown” stands out as it breaks this predictable ending by taking the chord progression and attacking the listener with a syncopated riff which satisfyingly concludes the song. On “Method of Murder” the band introduce their main idea early on and to opt to work in layers by adding a constantly changing lead guitar over a long chord progression that by the end of the song consists of only two power chords and enforces what this album is about, the transition from frantically trying to survive a twisted world to the point of becoming an amorphous mass of rotting meat. Where bands like Infester sought to take the listener towards the bottom of human dignity, Accidental Suicide assert that once bodily functions cease, peace can be found.
The major issue of this album is the lack of identity of each piece as the band dangerously play with plagiarism. The lead guitar melody echoed by the rhythm guitar on “My Dangling Corpse” is eerily similar to that of Autopsy’s “Dead”. References to Morbid Angel and Death, though less obvious are constantly abound and do distract from the atmosphere. Another main issue is the band allow themselves too easily to forget some great ideas as all the songs must decompose towards a grinding crawl. This forces the band to discard melodies that were introduced before and that could have been exploited much more. The difficulty with such a genre is not allowing the ambiance of the slower parts to dominate the flow of each song and is a curse that afflicts most modern bands in the style.
While Deceased bears its fair share of problems, a lack of identity and will never rival the classics. It is well composed Death/Doom with a strong backbone that does not wallow in sadness but revels itself in lifelessness and entropy. Where most bands bands in the style seek to crush the opposition with simple minded riffs or to annoy the listener with overly emotional self pity, Accidental Suicide seek to evoke simple and human horrors without any gimmicks.
