North Carolina’s Larcenia Roe have had a relatively quick moving up within the metal realm. Formed in 2023, they unleashed their first EP in the form of Dereliction, and signed with Unique Leader records last year. Extraction is their first full-length album, which makes good use of it’s utterly grim album art to go along with that title. For those wondering and the art and label didn’t give it away, Larcenia Roe play modern extreme death metal. Their sound, while unique, still feels like it needs to cook a bit more to truly satisfy.
Full of ‘jump scare’ tactics and ‘vocal gymnastics,’ Larcenia Roe’s version of death metal unfortunately feels more at home in a 30-second TikTok than a full-song approach. To be blunt, there’s a lot of incohesive stuff going on. If you hear a few seconds of any given song, there’s some massive riffs and haunting atmosphere that will undoubtedly get someone excited about the material, but it’s strung along in such a way that it’s jarring to listen to a full track. The vocals are placed firmly at the forefront, and much like the trendsetter for this sound, Lorna Shore’s “Through the Hellfire,” it’s more shock than substance. “Happy Fingers” opens with some visceral riffing and chaotic drum battery, not to mention some punishing vocal attacks. But later on almost random stop/starting, vocals that become overbearing in the forefront, and a 5-minute length, it’s too much all at once.
Likewise, “Carolina Crowd Killer” sets up some frantic blasting and devastating riff sequences, and utilizes some brutal breakdowns. But the parts lack unity and structure, not ever fully delivering on the promise that they could build up. As is, again, there’s some very cool riffs and individual elements happening, and the vocals are impressive in their range. But the jump scare approach with cohesion makes it hard to really gain a true perception of what’s going on, musically speaking. Even a shorter song, such as “Eggy Mess,” isn’t free from this swirling chaos, but on the whole it suffers less. Jagged riffing, urgent and attention-grabbing vocals, and throttling energy give it a high impact to bring the song through successfully.
It’s clear that Extraction is meant to jostle the listener and leave them a bit unsettled. To that end, it’s a definite success. But at the same time, it feels a bit underwhelming due to the overtly chaotic nature of the music in it’s attempt to cheaply jump-scare the listener with it’s unhinged time changes and jarring riffs. The vocals also suffer the same fate, in their attempt to overtake the landscape and draw focus, sometimes completely overpowering the music behind it. Larcenia Roe are certainly onto something with their sound, but they may need to smooth the edges a bit more to make a larger impact.