The thing to admire most here is how well Decomposed represents their achieved sound. The slow-roasting doom parts are melancholic and stomp with authority, while the death metal bits throw out blast beats and beastly riffing without hitting any bumps. Overall, the formula comes out as a feasible cut of doom/death metal. Songs like "Inscriptions" switch back and forth from old school death metal parts to the doom metal template, often times teetering on the cusp of each gracefully. The poignant lead guitar work serves to make the connection between doom and death metal well-founded, frequently scraping the upper limits of doom/death metal expectancies. Harry Armstrong, the dude who would later do stuff like End of Level Boss, has an excellent guttural performance handling the lyrics of grief. Those deep growls work well in both settings, vicious as they are.

Other than the basics, "Hope Finally Died�" rocks a nifty atmosphere of feeling pleasantly aboriginal. The only issue here is how insubstantial it all resonates stacked up against the record's finest moments. Few bits of Decomposed's efforts show glimmers of mastery despite the whole album sounding objectively above-average. It's one of those records that fail to become anything more than the total sum of parts, although there is much to admire otherwise. The production and style reek of old-fashioned putrefaction notched up to the doomy plodding and the death metal carnage, of which there is plenty. Again, this isn't bad, but it is standard; this isn't on the level of the sub-genre's masterpieces.