Guttural Secrete - Reek of Pubescent Despoilment

This is the last review in my review series of obscure underground brutal death metal. I am choosing this album to conclude this series because this is the most brutal album of all time. I saw these guys at the legendary three-day California Deathfest with other bands such as Waking the Cadaver, Retch, Severed Savior, Embryonic Devourment, Putrid Pile, Mortal Decay, Slaughterbox, Dehumanized, Foetopsy, Devourment, Cephalotripsy, and MANY more. Guttural Secrete played on day two and the level of brutality was literally more than three times the amount that is heard on the album.

I have noticed that this band has been getting a lot of attention from the public, mainly because everywhere I’ve looked; this album is either out of stock or outrageously priced (the only available copy I found was $60 on Amazon.com). Brutal Bands (www.brutalbands.net) just re-stocked on Guttural Secrete merchandise, so apparently they’ve sold out of the stuff before, which suggests a lot of support amongst the fans. Guttural Secrete is one of the only bands that I know of that are from Las Vegas, Nevada other than Escape the Fate.

The brutality of this album surpasses Cryptopsy, Devourment, Aborted, Nile, Vital Remains, Aborted, Whitechapel, Cattle Decapitation, Suicide Silence, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Brain Drill, Cannibal Corpse, Dethklok (inside joke), and Deicide. If you don’t believe me, CLICK THIS LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvU8j_Zsef0

The drumming is superb; the way his set is tuned has a lot of bass and doesn’t overpower the other instruments. I did notice that the guitars dominate everything else as far as volume goes, but they obviously did that on purpose to make it sound that much more gut-wrenching, and it worked. Their drummer isn’t the fastest double-kicker I’ve ever heard, but he certainly has the ability to stay on tempo with it for a long time. He was the one who produced the album and was also the guy who formed the band in the first place, so big thumbs up for him.

Their vocalist does some of the nastiest guttural inhales I’ve ever heard in my life. His growls are not only deep, but they have a really loose and powerful sound that’s actually pretty hard to make with inhales. I have no idea what he’s saying in the music, but I bet it would even make the strong-stomached person start to feel nauseous. Now I know that those of you that know a thing or two about brutality know that it’s not purely based on speed.

I’ve come to learn that brutality is characterized by really low down-tuned guitars, usually deep guttural growls, and with a switch-off between blazing fast tempos and slow, bludgeoning breakdowns. Guttural Secrete is nowhere near the fastest out there, and their breakdowns aren’t the slowest either. The range of tempos that are in their music are just the exact distance apart that makes it sound good.

The overall performance and musicianship of the band is quite impressive. There is an obvious large amount of focus, you can tell that they worked hard and practiced a lot. And you can tell that they didn’t just put together a bunch of random notes and disgusting lyrics and call it good; they worked together to perfect it. This album is addicting and the measure of brutality is so much that only the ones that can handle Devourment, Nile, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Cattle Decapitation will be able to live through this. This album is definitely worth a listen, good luck finding a physical copy though. 16/20.