Band: A Plea for Purging
Title: Depravity
Label: Facedown Records
Release Date: 2009
Review By: Steve
Tracklisting:
- Descension
- Retribution
- Malevolence
- Holocausts
- Motives
- Devourer
- Prevaricator
- Traitor
- Misanthropy
- Reputation
- Depravity
So I read Brandon’s post that we should go back through 2009 and read and rate all the albums reviewed. As I was going through the list, I couldn’t believe that Indie Vision Music had not reviewed Depravity. And this album was released in March 2009! This might be one of the least talked about, yet best albums of 2009. This is an extremely powerful album musically and lyrically. This album will definitely make you want to get up and move around, but not if Andy is in the pit with you. I saw these guys play live this summer. They put on one heck of a show and then stayed after to meet everyone that wanted to talk to them.
A Plea for Purging is a five-piece metalcore band out of Nashville, Tennessee that will kick the dust off your speakers if you let them. This album was mixed just the way I like it with loud and heavy bass and drum lines. This is not quite has hard as Advent’s Naked and Cold, but you get the idea. Then you throw in some technical guitar work, a huge man that can scream and yell with the best of them, and you got yourself a stellar album. A Plea for Purging has some outstanding musicians and they truly brought their ‘A’ game to the studio when they recorded Depravity. Nearly every song on the album is as hard and fast as the song before it. The only exception is “Retribution” that punches you in the face fast and hard and then slows down with some soft guitar work for a few seconds and then BAM!!! punches you in the face again! This is done repeatedly throughout the rest of the song.
Lyrically, Depravity, in my opinion, is like a concept album, with the concept being the plight of the sinful nature of man. This album is not like some albums that have crazy track titles having nothing to do with the song itself. Just look at the track listing and you will get the gist of the album and what message A Plea for Purging is trying to get across. My favorite song “Holocausts” also has the most powerful lyrics off the album. “Holocausts” covers the topic of abortion and the lack of morality that has been left in its place in our culture for too long. Andy starts out screaming, “millions of lives lost / so you can fill your pockets / millions of children slaughtered / so you can fill your pockets / when there’s blood on the streets it’s time to buy / when there’s blood it’s time to buy / choices made / the innocent will pay / who are you to say who’s to live and who’s to die” and then Andy finishes with a powerful ending “you could have stopped it / but you did nothing / only the dead have seen the end of this war / when you look into the eyes of your children / I hope you see the millions you have murdered / when there’s blood on the streets / there’s blood on your hands.”
Overall: This is an outstanding album from start to finish. I can’t really think of any flaw on the album except that I personally dislike 30-second intro tracks. Just give me a full song! I have no idea why I have not heard more praise given to this album. Maybe there has and I have missed it, but for any real metal/metalcore fan this is an absolute must buy!
