Aposepsy - Aposepsy

When it comes to Russian brutality, there’s no fucking around. Russian brutal death and death grind bands mean business; no questions asked. Producing some of the sickest and coolest slamming brutal death/death grind bands like Aborted Fetus, Abominable Putridity, Back Door to Asylum, Abnormity, Russia has greatly earned my trust when it comes to high-quality brutality. On a side note, Russia also has an ever-thriving depressive black metal scene (Wintercult, etc.) and one of the heaviest deathcore bands in my collection, Taking your last Chance. But more recently, Amputated Vein Records has introduced me to the Russian death grind band Aposepsy. To be honest, even though I love death grind, I don’t have a whole lot in my collection. I have the really famous bands like Cattle Decapitation, Dying Fetus, Misery Index, Carcass, etc. And I have a couple of underground groups like Retch, Skinless, Lord Gore, Gutted, Carnal Disfigurement, Eden Beast, Wormed (the masters of underground brutality), Brutal Truth, and some others. I do realize that to many of you, that seems like a lot for one genre, but compared to the amount of material I have in most of my other categories, this isn’t that much.

Honestly, most of the death grind that I’ve heard has more “death” than “grind”. Aposepsy has far more “grind” than “death”. I guess you could say that they relate strongly to Brutal Truth and Lord Gore. But even then, there are plenty of instantly noticeable differences in sound. Probably the most unique thing (to me) about Aposepsy is the vocal style. The vocals used in this album are the style that’s more familiar with the goregrind and SUPER underground grindcore genres. If you’re not familiar with goregrind, you should listen to Last Days of Humanity, Romperomp, Gut, Haemorrhage, Torsofuck, and Lividity. Goregrind vocals are typically really low inhales that are highly-processed and/or edited, sometimes using pitch-shifts depending on what sound the band wants. Ok, so now you newbies know what I’m talking about, I need to tell you about this amazing mix of death metal and goregrind.

Probably what I enjoy most about Aposepsy is the groove and catchiness they have in their music. When you listen to the first track you can hear the distinct groove in the opening bass riff and even more so when the guitars kick in. The drumming has an immense amount of a Vinnie Paul influence (which is partly responsible for the band’s catchy sound). But after the intro track, you start to hear much more of a grindcore and goregrind influence with just a little bit of death metal (therefore landing in the “death grind” section on my computer).

One thing that this album has is plenty of interlude tracks. While the main full songs express the chaos and utter brutality of Aposepsy’s music, the interlude tracks have much more groove and catchiness that’s a lot easier to notice to the grindcore newbie. Not only does this show variety in writing style, but the band also expresses that they’re actually really tight and…well…good! These guys aren’t shitty “musicians” playing as fast as they possibly can, these Russian fuckers are for real! The best member of the band is, hands down, the drummer. This guy is one of the most technical death grind drummers I’ve ever heard next to the drummers for Dying Fetus and Wormed. But the thing about him that makes him different is that he doesn’t play constant technicality and complexity, but he’s not doing a constant blast beat either. He’s doing both! This guy plays an indescribably BRUTAL blast beat (listen to the title track), and then play extremely creative fills and riffs that are filled with creativity and technicality!

Probably just the way his drums are the loudest instrument out of all the members and the way they’re tuned is mainly responsible for how brutal he sounds. But because of how easily you can hear him, you can tell that this guy NEVER falls out of time and is for fucking real! Ok, the guitarists (one of them being the vocalist) sound like technical death grind guitarists. And I’m someone that believes that the best grindcore out there is the kind that’s mixed with death metal. These guys sound like ex-Cattle Decapitation guitarists, that’s how progressive and technical they are. Along with the fucking groove of the drums and bass, the guitarists help fill in all the empty gaps with some of the crunchiest distortion I’ve ever heard in my life and some of the most progressive and fucking brutal chords and riffs. A long with that, the guitarists like to play Dying Fetus-style lead lines that are really high pitched, except not QUITE as technical as Dying Fetus. But they still strongly remind me of the big DF. I’m not a HUGE fan of the vocals, but then again, I’m not really fond of the whole highly-edited and processed goregrind inhales in the first place, so I don’t think that anything I say about the vocals would be very credible because I don’t like that style in the first place. But, they fit the rest of the music in this case perfectly.

Russia’s Aposepsy is a motherfucking blast to listen to and I highly recommend giving this record a spin the next time you’re having an appetite for chaotic brutality. I would give this album 16/20 for making me smile, but not being quite my cup of tea. But this ass-tight band shows the capability of being the next Wormed.