Named after a song from The Black Dahlia Murder, Denounced Disgraced has made its debut with its first EP. Denounced Disgraced further worships the band, as they carry the melodic death metal of The Black Dahlia, plus whatever's floating around in the office genre fishbowl. They picked deathcore, which probably came with a lollipop and a sticker, but Denounced Disgraced stuck with it and delivered "Depths of the Grave." Before I begin, I'd like to state that I'm not a deathcore hater, but I'll never turn down a lollipop.

Enough candy-coating crapping on deathcore, and onto the EP. It opens with "Just a Corpse," a melodic track with plenty of -core influence on the vocal delivery, courtesy of Dan. The downtuned guitar chugs also reek of the angsty days of MySpace misogyny. The technicality is mainly found in the drumming, which is fast, no doubt, but not that impressive. I felt my pupils hit the ceiling as I prepared for a breakdown, but I was happily left empty-handed. Not a horrid track to start off the album. "Aim for the Head" starts a little proggy, with some riff wizardry and some subtle keys (?) hiding behind the wall of guitars. I'd go as far as to call this some archetype of progressive metal, and I can easily get on board with the band if they delve further into this sound. Somewhere, there's a lyric video for this track, and I watched a small clip of it on Instagram. I appreciate the overload of purple - not a color you see a lot in metal. Track the third features The Red Chord, a Massachusetts-based grindcore/mathcore/deathcore/whatevercore band that's been surprisingly inactive in the studio since I was born (2009). The two entities get TECHNICAL, and I can already hear the drums crying for mercy.

"Abysmal Drowning" is a relatively shorter song, and it acts as a spooky segway into the final track, "Parasite." "Parasite" features a fellow melodic techdeath group, Carnosus. Carnosus bridged the gap from Sweden and helped push the limits of what you can accomplish in 3 minutes and 41 seconds. Straightforward and basic technical death metal is combined with brief instances of thrash and melodicism take up the bulk of this track, but there's room for a breakdown and some putrid notes provided by guest vocalist Jonatan. It could've been Dan, but after I heard those gurgles, I don't care who did what.

It's clear that the mix of melodic death metal and outside influences isn't endemic to Denounced Disgraced's inspirations, and they sure do continue them in fashion. This EP was around nineteen minutes, and I enjoyed pretty much all of it. No music on this EP was anything astounding, but it was enough to keep my head moving, my feet bouncing, and my fingers typing positive sentences. This lollipop tasted quite alright for someone who's quite a picky eater.