Perhaps heralding a new generation of conceptually strong willed artists, Decrepit Birth's debut effort picks up the slack left behind as the landmark style put forward by Suffocation caught on and moved away from harmonizing philosophy and sound to increased emphasis on wowing, unteachable, musicianship. _...And Time Begins_ returns the balance with a seemingly perfect union of thematic and song craft, inspired by the atonal forms of early Nineties death metal, with cover art by Dan Seagrave added for good measure. The beginning of each track touches off a mantra-like redefinition of sound that pummels for nine tracks in a psychotic Tetris behind the rending throat of Bill Robinson, who intones a mythology of human history. Drummer Tim Yeung (who has contributed his talents to far too many albums to list here, uses triggers, but still I suspect, does not possess actual human sinew) anchors this swarm, blasting aside completely indulgent chord progressions as they rain like fractal debris cometting through space. In fact the totality of this release feels like it ultimately aims at aurally portraying the "Big Bang". The production balances every voice on the record fairly, but the dizzying flight of movement engulfed in distortion makes a crystal-sounding transfer of every note impossible. As the breaks do practically nothing to interfere with the searing tempos, the pace of this album confuses, and some listeners may feel subjected to a rant in a foreign language, ready to brush aside as ill gibberish. The length of the album is to its advantage, and it's hard to imagine not playing the full album's chaos in one sitting over and over. These thirty minutes communicate the exhale of gods.