EP Review: The Depression Sessions (Nuclear Blast)

This 6 track EP sees 3 of metals most brutal acts teaming up to destroy minds & damage hearing. Fit For An Autopsy, The Acicia Strain & Thy Art Is Murder have released The Depression Sessions, an EP that sees each band throwing out one original song & one cover.

Songs that you wouldn’t really expect these bands to actually cover. Ever wanted to hear Fit For An Autopsy crank up the brutality for a cover of Nine Inch Nails’s The Perfect Drug? How about Thy Art Is Murder covering Rammstein’s Du Hast?

Neither surpasses the original & in the case of The Perfect Drug, there is little to get excited about. However it’s The Acicia Strain’s cover of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun that really stinks up this EP. Lacking all the mellow & mind-bending moments that make the original so compelling, the production job (smooth as anything throughout all 6 songs) is the only thing that steps this up from a bad garage band cover.

They Will Know Another is Thy Art’s original offering & it’s a poignant listen as this EP would mark the last music the band made with frontman CJ before he quit. It’s a solid piece of death metal that has all the Thy Art hallmarks but fails to stand out in comparison to the great music that came off the last album, Holy War.

The Acica Strain’s Sensory Deprivation on the other hand is mind-meltingly good, a deviously dark tone wrapped around some killer riffs & ear-splitting drumming. It’s heavy as fuck!

Finally Flatlining by Fit For An Autopsy doesn’t light much of a fire under anything, mostly forgettable even if it has more imagination then the other other 2 bands’ efforts. It’s a song that mixes the melodic & heavy well but there are plenty of bands that do that & do it way better.

The Depression Sessions EP was an exciting idea but it lacks in execution. The covers aren’t very good & the original songs, while solid are hardly required listening.

Full Track Listing:

1. They Will Know Another (Thy Art Is Murder)
2. Sensory Deprivation (The Acacia Strain)
3. Flatlining (Fit For An Autopsy)
4. Du Hast (Thy Art Is Murder – Rammstein Cover)
5. Black Hole Sun (The Acacia Strain – Soundgarden Cover)
6. The Perfect Drug (Fit For An Autopsy – Nine Inch Nails Cover)

The Depression Sessions was released on August 12th, 2016 through Nuclear Blast.