Left To Rot (LTR) is an Austin, Texas-based death metal band formed in 2021 by guitarist/vocalist Jason Dahlke and drummer Justin Olejnik who soon brought in bassist Aryan Nawim. They released a four-track demo that year, following it up with a single in 2022 before releasing this five-track EP towards the end of 2023. They say they are inspired by the likes of Grave, Entombed, Bloodbath, and Death, but wanted to bring more groove and structural sensibility to modern death metal. We have the obligatory sub-minute introduction to create atmosphere and presence which has nothing to do with the other four tracks, and then we are off into the title cut which is probably the best of the bunch with nice, growled vocals which have a real presence, plus some real complexity in the arrangement with the instruments all tied in well together and the drums nicely to the fore but not overpowering.

The same cannot be said for the rest of the 16-minute EP though, as there are way too many times when it has been slowed down so much that one believes the band are waiting on the next idea, and until that happens, we get brought down almost into doom territory. Nick Furkel (Turbid North) has done a nice job on the mixing and mastering, but he has not been able to obscure that fact that here is a band with a nice touch who need more assistance in their direction. Only time will tell if they will develop into something more powerful, but this is early days in their career and at present this is an interesting jaunt but a long way from being indispensable.

Rating: 6/10

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