Insidious Decrepancy
Decadent Orgy of Atrocious Suffering

October 2005
Released: 2005, Unmatched Brutality
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: Madman

A one man death metal project? One knows it can work extremely well in black metal but as of yet I haven’t seen it work in death metal. Insidious Decrepancy prove me wrong or right depending on how you view it. Insidious Decrepancy is the project of one Shawn Whitaker. This debut album, DECADENT ORGY OF ATROCIOUS SUFFERING was originally released by TXDM Underground in 2002 but since that label went under Unmatched Brutality picked up the slack and re-released the album with new (and more blasphemous) artwork.



Insidious Decrepancy’s brand of death metal is dark, at least darker than most. Which is commendable seeing as most death metal just doesn’t carry enough of a sinister vibe anymore. I was actually a bit surprised to find out that this was a one man band as it doesn’t feel as messy as most do and the programmed drums don’t sound out of place, this might be due to the rampant, and blatant, amount of triggering going on in modern death metal drumming. The one unfortunate thing is that Shawn Whitaker hasn’t fully grown into a good songwriter, at least, not yet. The songs aren’t very memorable or outstanding and that’s best exemplified in the fact that the cover of Immolation’s “Dawn of Possession” is the only song I remember when the album is done.



With all this said, DECADENT ORGY OF ATROCIOUS SUFFERING isn’t a bad album. It’s merely stunted by a lack of exciting songwriting, not bad songwriting, but the songs don’t have anything that really stands out about them. Not in the structures, the riffs, or the vocals which is why the Immolation cover stands out so much. Immolation, even in the early days, could write a song that made you take notice while Shawn Whitaker currently writes songs that are decent background music for your day but aren’t quite worth giving your full attention.



Insidious Decrepancy barely passes, but there is a lot of room for growth and I am interested in seeing what Shawn can come up with now after 3 years.