TO DESCEND are a Swedish band who play Rotten Old School Death Metal. Mindless Birth is their second EP after an album released in 2021 and is released by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.

Mindless Birth kicks your Death Metal ass across five tracks in a mere 13 minutes so this is going to be a fairly short review.

Welcome to the world of heavy riffs, growly vocals and indecipherable lyrics. You know the score particularly if you're 'old school'.

"Parasitic Visions" starts with a heavy lumbering riff before it rages with Thrash Metal urgency. It's well produced and for once the vocals are nicely balanced in the mix and you can hear everything clearly. Though the lyrics are difficult to decipher, that's not unusual for this genre of music.

"Voices in the Fire" has a definite rawness which is punctuated with a short searing solo before the carnage continues. There is a fairly melodic ending with some semi-spoken vocals which are decipherable and it adds a slightly different hue.

My fave track is "Chained to Time" with a really cool groove to the main riff, a semi-singable chorus and a bit of a solo. The last minute or so, the track slows down and "chained to time" is chanted/growled before returning to the groovy riff.

"Demented Lake" finishes the album and clearly Denis got bored as the 'lead guitar' solo is pretty pathetic - it kind of starts nowhere and ends nowhere. It's a bit pointless really and I don't know why he bothered as it lasts 2 seconds at best and is a little jarring. The track itself is fairly forgettable as is the title track which lasts less than two minutes (and with another lame lead lick).

Whilst it is well produced and there's a couple of decent tracks, the rest is fairly forgettable fare. How much you love this is going to depend on how much you love old school Death Metal. The musicianship is decent (though the lead licks are very uninspired) and I'm not exactly going to be humming this whilst I'm doing the dishes, well maybe "chained to time"..."chained to time"...Yes that "chained to time" is quite "chained to time" catchy.