siLLy puPPy The year 2020 will go down in history for being one of the most fucked up ever. After starting out with a possible World War III with Iran and half of Australia going up in smoke, it only got better! Not! With the world in lock down from the pathogen known as COVID-19 it’s no wonder that our consciousness is united unlike any other time in the past so it’s was to be expected that with all the time in the world to contemplate the doom and gloom of this reality upon us, so too will some musical angst spring forth.

YouTube parody videos aside, this is the first artist i’ve heard who has released actual music to celebrate this little bugger that is infected our world and leaving some to perish in its wake however i’m sure there are others, this is just the first i’ve heard personally. This artist aptly named COVID-19 is the solo project of Alex Ezeptrone who is a member of the bands Gartraada and Wishdoomdark and he comes from Novomoskovsk in the Tula Oblast of Russia which is due south of Moscow. This less than cheery EP titled WE ALL DIE reflects the mood of many of us all across the globe and with six short angsty metal tracks, this COVID-19 laments the current scene metal style.

Starting out with a Black Sabbath styled riffing, the opening track “Coronavirus” quickly turns into a death-doom metal sound that finds two guitars, a bass and drum generating a down-tuned downer vibe with Gorguts styled death growls. The tunes are mostly set to mid-tempo and remind me a bit of some of the slower Autopsy tracks such as “Impending Dread” on “Severed Survival” for example. The tracks are all short and to the point with relevant title track names such as “Blood China,” “Pandemia,” “With A Dead Radiance Life Is Desolating,” “See Venice And Die” and of course the title track! “Pandemia” changes gears and ups the tempo for a full death metal rampage as does the closing title track.

I mean really, i can’t think of better subject matter for an extreme death-doom metal album than a pandemic currently in the process of razing our world to the ground and smacking humankind like a bitch that didn’t bring her pimp the money for the night. All i can say is that Ezeptrone was very clever in brining this to the world in the midst of the actual event but as far as the music goes this is fairly typical death-doom metal that sounds more impromptu and on the spot than composed over a period of time. Still though all is played well and just like a good punk rock album reflects the subject matter over the musical composition and surely captures the mood for a locked down depressing world in 2020. And this is just March!