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This band has been getting really popular over the last few years, what with so many other technical Death Metal bands rising to the surface all the sudden. Origin put a bit of a new twist on the standard formula, writing songs at half the usual duration but with double the brutality - a clever scheme indeed, and Origin are obviously skillful entrepreneurs at their craft. "Echoes of Decimation", their third full length album, is not a newfound classic by any means, but it does supply an entertaining voyage into spacey, ethereal brutality that you'll go back to again and again, since this album is less than a half hour, built specially for repeated plays in the first place.

Origin's formula is tight and very brutal, with cascades of rolling, rumbling riffs coming at you like a hurricane, while the drums pound away in a complex, involving whirlwind of heavy, driving beats that will blow your mind. The bass is crunching away all the while, and the vocals are the expected gruff roar/growl; not exactly anything new, but the vocalist does what he does very well, so I have no qualms with it. The lyrics are decent, and there are quite a lot of them, too - it's a rare moment on "Echoes of Decimation" that the vocalist is not spewing aural terror through your headset, and especially since all of the songs are so short here. This isn't so much of a problem for me, but the music could have a bit more space to breathe, really - at least make the songs longer for some extended instrumental breaks. The sound this band utilizes is not derivative of Necrophagist, Suffocation or Nile, which makes "Echoes..." a fine breath of fresh air for the seasoned Death Metal purist.

Being such a short and to the point album, there isn't much space for fillers, and every song is more or less on the same level of quality. I have to say the best one is "Staring from the Abyss" with its crushing, spacey rhythms and pulsating drum beats, followed by the longer and more dense title track, and also the kinetic "The Burner," which cooks up a raging storm of crushing weight that will not fail to please. There aren't any bad tracks here though, and this is an overall solid album, so I can safely recommend it to anyone who has a taste for modern Death Metal. You won't regret it.