Gortuary - Awakening of Pestilent Beings

So apparently Gortuary had released a follow-up to their AMAZING debut, and I didn’t find out about it until three years later; way to stay in the loop. During fall of last year, I stumbled upon Gortuary’s little (but official) online merch store, which is where I saw that there were TWO CDs available. Now if you read my review on their debut, you know that my favorite thing about that album was the vocalist. That guy has some of the most gruesome and unique inhales I’ve ever heard. That along with how the drums sounded were the key contributors for why I love that album. With high anticipation to hear those vocals again, I play the record and hear a completely different voice.

For reasons that, no matter how much research I do, I can’t seem to find, Gortuary’s original vocalist is not featured on this album. Once again no idea why, or even when (well obviously sometime in between the releases of their first and second albums) this happened, but that’s not even the biggest disappointment. The worst part is the guy that replaced him. He’s one of the best prime examples of the absolute most generic inhaled vocals sound like. If you lose a very unique vocalist, the least you could do is find a replacement that’s also unique. It doesn’t have to be just as unique as his/her predecessor, it can be a completely different type of uniqueness! But the WORST thing you want to do is replace an extremely recognizable and unique vocalist with a bottom-of-the-barrell easy to find generic guy that sounds exactly like 60% of the other ones! What the fuck happened to having standards?? Even having some random fuck like Matti Way or Blue Jensen or just SOMEONE that’s not average appear as a session vocalist would’ve been a better idea than to pick up some random fuck off the street.

But then again, I don’t know this guy, there’s a big possibility that he has a long history with the members of this band and was chosen because he’s their friend and they get along great. Or maybe he volunteered to step in when Oliver was no longer a member of Gortuary. I’ll never know for sure why the chose this new fuck, but that’s not my job, I don’t think he’s a good fit for these guys and because of his vocals, this whole album sounds purely generic and uninteresting compared to the band’s debut.

When I looked up this new guy, Nate, to take a look at his musical history, it’s pretty obvious that he’s fairly new. But the odd thing is that it doesn’t seem like he’s ever been in any super underground bands. He did guest vocals on two tracks from the album Shattered Eyes put out in 2010 (and recently re-released via Amputated Vein), and he was the official vocalist for brutal death behemoths Disgorge from 2012-2013, which means that all he did with them was tour a bit and maybe make attempts at writing. But his gig with Pathology wasn’t until two years AFTER this album was recorded, and the Shattered Eyes thing was at the same time. So this might’ve been Nate’s first time recording with an actual band. My suggestion? TRY DOING SOMETHING MORE UNIQUE AND RECOGNIZABLE.

Moving on, the overall production of the album is very dry and unmemorable. As I guessed, they got a different producer for this album, and his resume is pathetic with the only notable albums he’s produced being a Bleeding Through album and the first two Pathology records. So the guitar distortion is dry and tasteless, the drums never stand out, the only time you can hear the bassist is during the two or three solos where he’s the only one playing. Everything just seemed to go the minimalist route this time around which is very disappointing because I LOVE their first album, I always mention it when listing off unique and very good brutal death albums, but this is not the same band that’s on Manic Thoughts of Perverse Mutilation (okay yes I know the only difference in lineup is the vocalist but they don’t sound the same).

Aside from all that, there are some musical progressions the band has made. I don’t exactly remember there being many guitar solos on Manic Thoughts, but there are plenty of them on Awakening of Pestilent Beings. They aren’t anything special, but I am glad that they’re not just random shredding that sounds like absolutely nothing (very few bands sound good with that). There’s even a nice interlude somewhat similar to the last track from Guttural Secrete’s legendary Reek of Pubescent Despoilment.

Another change to take note is that the breakdowns are much more profound and are played in a more traditional fashion. To me this is a step in the wrong direction, but I know some of you out there prefer this style of brutal death so I’ll let you be the judge of that. Regardless of all the negatives, the band is still tight, none of them suck at what they do, they’re great as a band! So this album is very solid in terms of the basics and mandatory elements, but it’s the fact that they went from going above and beyond on their last album to going with the bare minimum is sickening to me. It makes this record sound a lot worse to me than it actually is because of the disappointment it’s caused me.

For those of you that are simply looking for a piece of slamming brutality where the band doesn’t suck, this is not a bad choice. The band is very tight, and there are a few hidden surprises you might like. If you’re one of the fuckers like me that was expecting a follow-up to Manic Thoughts of Perverse Mutilation, sorry, nothing to see here. It’d probably be best to save yourself the disappointment by not listening to this because well...it’s just not anywhere near being as good as Manic Thoughts. I would give this new-ish Gortuary record a 9/20.

Suffocation - Pinnacle of Bedlam

Too long after the release of Blood Oath, the brutal death masters are back with a new release. It appears that Suffocation have been getting on the three year gap pattern in between albums since the release of their self-titled album. With a bit of scattered touring here and there after the release of Blood Oath, Suffocation have actually been taking things fairly easily this time around, with vocalist Frank Mullen taking time to work his other job that he very much enjoys, and for the other guys to do whatever shit they do when they’re not playing death metal. I’m going to jump right into my biggest concern at first and say that drummer Mike Smith was always my favorite thing about this band. Well, unfortunately, while Suffocation was spending some time playing a few festivals, Mr. Smith decided that his time in Suffocation was over. So after shaving off all his long dreads, he finished all of the last scheduled shows the band had until they started writing their next album. I was actually very upset to hear this, but it’s not a complete loss because his replacement is technically an ex-Suffocation member.

Dave Kulross, most known for the many years he spent drumming for Malevolent Creation, was the guy who played drums on the Despise the Sun EP in 2002. I don’t exactly consider him to be a true Suffocation veteran since he wasn’t even on a true full-length, but whatever. So with that, I was interested in hearing what this guy could really do, because one measly EP isn’t enough material to compare this guy to Mike Smith. Smith’s overall drumming style is so unique that it’s obvious to anyone that’s heard it that it’s nearly impossible to replicate it. Although his style was superb in the 1990s era of Suffocation (that being an understatement), the drumming that he did on Souls to Deny, Suffocation’s Self-Titled record, Blood Oath, and The Close of a Chapter (the band’s live album) is so mind-blowingly talented, creative, complex, and amazing that it’s one of the hardest things for me to accurately put into words.

The first track off the record, Cycles of Suffering, pretty much starts right off at full force without any sort of hesitation. If you told me that Mike Smith was the one behind the kit in that recording, I would’ve believed you without second thought. Dave Kulross is a fucking beast and he managed to pull-off what many were convinced was an unthinkable task and master the Suffocation drumming style. Of course, after listening to the record straight through, you can tell that it’s not Mike Smith because…well…considering the fact of how similar to Smith this guy has managed to sound, there are some things that he doesn’t do that you would expect to hear from Mike. But even then, it’s not much of a loss at all because you’re distracted by all of the chaotic brutality already surrounding you.

Unlike Blood Oath, which focused primarily on creating floor-leveling grooves at a maximum brutality rate, Pinnacle of Bedlam puts 70% of its focus on blistering technicality. Of course, since it’s Suffocation, the brutality factor is maxed-out, so that in itself is a no-brainer. But really, Pinnacle of Bedlam could easily be Suffocation’s most instrumentally complex record since Pierced from Within, which was released almost 15 years ago. And by technical, I don’t mean the drumming, because that’s a given on any Suffocation record. What I mean when I talk about technicality on this record is the complexity of the guitarists and bassist. The lead lines are slightly less catchy, have a lot more to them, and to put the icing on the cake, it’s a hell of a lot fucking faster.

If you want a really good taste of everything this album brings, listen to As Grace Descends. That song, in particular, captures everything that you will hear on this record and magnifies all of its strongest traits. As Grace Descends is easily the catchiest song on the entire record. The drumming is basically something Mike Smith would play, but with Dave’s own personal twist to make it extra unique. The energetic tremolo picking that the guitarists do while steadily jumping around between five or six different chords intensifies literally everything about this track. And to top it off, of course, what would Suffocation be without the mighty Frank Mullen belting out those deep guttural growls like a fucking badass while shaking his hand in the air.

On one last note, Suffocation has always had a tradition of going back and re-recording one old song from one of their early records for each release. For example, the last track on their self-titled record is a re-recorded version of a song from their second album, the seventh track on Pierced from Within is a re-recorded version of a song from their very first release, the Human Waste EP, etc. Well, the re-recorded song on this album is Beginning of Sorrow, the first song off their second album, Breeding the Spawn. Here’s what really makes me smile about this: Mike Smith was the drummer on that album, so what the band did is they brought Mike Smith back (as a guest musician) to do the drums on the re-recorded version. That, right there, is fucking respect. And it also shows that they’re all on good terms with each other.

Everything, literally everything about this album is perfect. Perfect enough to make the whole fucking album perfect. Suffocation has never released an “average” record, but Blood Oath was definitely starting to head in that direction; so I’m very glad that the band picked up the railroad tracks and re-positioned them back in the right direction. If you love death metal, if you’re new to death metal, or even Suffocation, this is an album that you need to hear because it’s not only one of the best albums that this year has seen so far, it’s also one of the best albums in Suffocation’s extensive catalog of releases. When I say perfect, of course I’m implying that this album gets a perfect score, 20/20 for this one and will probably end up putting it on my “best of 2013” list at the end of the year. 

Defeated Sanity - Passages into Deformity

Every album that Defeated Sanity puts out seems to be better than the one previous to it. I started listening to these guys when they only had two albums out. I got hooked onto the noisy brutality of their Psalms of the Moribund record. Then, without me knowing, they released a follow-up to that titled Chapters of Repugnance. So a year after it was released, I finally got my hands on it and instantly became addicted to the thick, meaty brutality that had grown in both maturity and technicality (I'll be discussing this later in the review). Now, after getting everyone's attention (including mine) with Chapters of Repugnance, Defeated Sanity are back with their most crushing album yet, Passages into Deformity.

Something that always bothered me about Defeated Sanity is the way the albums are mixed. In Psalms of the Moribund, everything sounded really muddy and almost overproduced. On top of that the vocals were almost completely drowned out to the point to where you really had to listen closely to hear them. Chapters of Repugnance solved that issue, but then again, it had its own problems as well. The drums on Chapters overpowered EVERYTHING to the point of being annoying. I think that Passages into Deformity is the first album that really fixed all the issues all the previous records had without creating any new ones. In other words, the sound of all the individual members, for the first time, sounds balanced.

Defeated Sanity really needs to NOT have a different vocalist on every album. When I learned that the guy from the brutal death masters Disgorge did the vocals on Chapters, I really hoped that he would be their longtime vocalist because, unlike some vocalists in the genre, he knows how to do inhaled growls and make it sound fucking good. Although the guy doing the vocals on this album sounds good and fits in with the rest of the band, it really is kind of a setback from the killer vocals that were delivered on Chapters of Repugnance.

Almost everywhere I see these guys on the internet, I see them being categorized as being a technical death band. Is there something I'm missing here? Because to me, Defeated Sanity doesn't sound all that technical. Unless now, any death metal band that has ANY amount of technicality is considered a technical death band (which kind of ruins the point of the genre). If that were true, that means Cannibal Corpse, Vader, Nile, Death, Suffocation, All Shall Perish, Morbid Angel, and so many other death metal, brutal death, and death grind bands would be considered technical death (ok well I guess I can understand Nile although I still just consider them to be a brutal death band). Since this confused the fucking hell out of me, I decided to go back and listen to Defeated Sanity's entire discography to find out why they're almost ALWAYS referred to as a technical death metal band.

As my initial reaction said, these guys aren't very technical at all. But, their sound does increase in complexity with each album. The bassist now has somewhat technical solos (most notably at the beginning of the second track, Naraka), which actually sound really cool. Besides that, and some of the lead guitar lines, these guys aren't any more technical than Cannibal Corpse. Something that Defeated Sanity DOES have, though, is an immense amount of purebred brutality. Their record label, Willowtip, claims this to be the most brutal album of 2013. As much as I disagree with that statement (new Guttural Secrete album, anyone?), I can't disagree with the fact that this record is brutal as fucking hell. The vocals, although not as high-pitched and guttural as the ones on Chapters, are much harsher and...well...more brutal than any of the other Defeated Sanity albums! The guitar distortion could use to have some more crunch, but it still sounds good.

Probably the best thing about Passages into Deformity is the maturity of the sound. Defeated Sanity, as a whole, have obviously matured a great deal since the release of Chapters of Repugnance. Everything from the song structure to the overall organization of the sound is stronger, more thought-out, and more confident than ever before; making Passages of Deformity a much easier album to digest and understand. And on top of all that, this album has the best cover artwork of any other past release by this band. I would strongly recommend this to all fans of brutality and death metal alike. Passages into Deformity gets my score of 16/20.

Devourment - Conceived in Sewage

Devourment has become one of the biggest brutal death bands right now. Although the majority of their fan base is within the underground brutal death community, there are some that are considering them to be up there with Hate Eternal, Nile, and Aborted. I don’t agree with the latter statement, but it’s no myth that Devourment is at the top of their game. The band’s third album, Unleash the Carnivore, is one of my personal favorite brutal death records ever, and is credited worldwide as being one of the best albums in the history of underground slamming brutality. Now, the Texas quartet is back with their fourth and highly-anticipated release, Conceived in Sewage. It should be noted that 2013 is supposed to be a pretty big year for the brutal death and death grind genres. It’s already seen the fantastic releases of several brutal death and death grind bands including Defeated Sanity, Guttural Secrete, Suffocation, and Wormed. But one of the better ones of this year was released by none other than Devourment.

Despite the mind-blowing power and slamming brutality that Unleash the Carnivore "unleashed" unto the listener, it had some minor flaws that needed some working. The biggest thing that bothered people was the vocals. The vocals on Unleash the Carnivore are good, but there were two things about them that caused problems. The first was that they were only super deep inhales. This made the vocals become monotonous after the fourth song or so. The second was that they weren't loud and powerful enough. Because of this, the extreme volume of the drums and guitars buried the vocals too much.

Devourment completely fixes this issue on Conceived in Sewage. Not only do you get those memorable duper deep guttural inhales, you also hear different inhale variations, mid-range exhales, pig squeals, and some of the most spine-chilling guttural exhale growls you'll ever hear. To get a good listen to the exhales, Legalize Homicide, Parasitic Eruption, Today we Die, Tomorrow we Kill, and Conceived in Sewage are both great song examples for them. But really, you get to hear the exhaled growls a little bit on every song. On top of that, the vocals (even the deep inhales) never get covered up by the rest of the band which was my main issue with all of the previous Devourment records.

The rest of the band is much, much tighter and appear to be more confident and more organized. Even though the overall organization and structure of Devourment’s music has been improving with each release, there’s always been a little too much sloppiness present. Something must’ve cracked in this band between 2009 and 2012 because this is a substantial climb in organization. The different guitar sections seem to be less random, the tempo changes blend together much better, and the drums don’t take half a second to catch up to the new tempo right after a drastic shift in the music. That’s probably another huge improvement Devourment has made, the drums.

The drums on Molesting the Decapitated, Butcher the Weak, and Unleash the Carnivore (pretty much everything Devourment has ever released) are fucking awesome. The slamming brutality that Devourment is known for is primarily driven by the drums, not just the extremely low tuning of the guitars. The reason behind the literal explosion of brutality at the beginning of the first song on Unleash the Carnivore is THE DRUMMER. Now, the drums on Conceived in Sewage have the same brutality, different tuning, and slightly more technicality. The drummer has gotten a hell of a lot more inventive with the different patterns and tempos he comes up with. The interest factor in the drum section on previous Devourment records (most of the time) remained fairly marginal. Now, the interest factor has skyrocketed. His blast beats seem to be less chaotic, which is something I liked about him, but the sound of his new blast beats fit the new sound of the music perfectly, so I’m glad he changed his style a bit. The interesting shit he does during the slamming breakdowns in songs like (the end of) Legalize Homicide, Heaving Acid, and Parasitic Eruption are mind-blowing.

Let’s take a moment and look at the interesting breakdowns (some of the brutal death fans call them “slams”) that can be heard on this record. Most of the breakdowns that you’ll hear on this album are the fast-paced, almost groovy type. These are ones that are led by the fast double-kicks and tremolo picking with the slow headbanging part relying on the rest of what the drummer does and the bassist. Other bands that use this type of breakdown a lot include Pathology, Dying Fetus, Gorgasm, Cryptopsy, Heaven Shall Burn, and Visceral Disgorge. Although these breakdowns do appear at least once in every song off Conceived in Sewage, when I think about the songs that do, Legalize Homicide, Fucked with Rats, and Fifty Ton War Machine are the first that come to mind. Also, we have those extremely slow, bludgeoning breakdowns that can be surprisingly hard to pull off without sounding dull and boring. The slow breakdown on the song Today we Die, Tomorrow we Kill is packed with insane brutality with the combination of the fast blast beat drumming in the background and the vocalist’s deep inhales. Other songs that have really good slow slamming breakdowns, most of which have some groove to them are Carved into Ecstasy, Fifty Ton War Machine, and the mighty Parasitic Eruption.

No one was expecting something THIS GOOD out of Devourment. The band continued to blow more and more minds to pieces with each release; how the fuck could they do any better? Conceived in Sewage is the answer. Even I, a HUGE fan of this band wasn’t expecting something this intense and this good. Devourment has released yet another album that I will continue to listen to over and over again for years to come. Anyone who loves or wants to listen to the most brutal music on the planet (i.e. Nile, Guttural Secrete, Aborted, Cattle Decapitation, Skinless, etc.) needs to have this album because just about anyone that has listened to it can guarantee you that it will not disappoint. Conceived in Sewage Devourment’s best monster yet, getting my score of 19/20.

Gorgasm - Orgy of Murder

Ever since I first really got into the whole brutal death and grindcore scene, Putrid Pile, Cephalotripsy, Disgorge, Defeated Sanity, and Gorgasm are among the band names that keep popping up. Although I’m not a fan of all of these, they all seem to be a pretty big deal. So since Gorgasm was one of the ones I didn’t look up immediately those years ago, so I decided now was a good time. The majority of the big dogs in the realms of slamming brutality seem to each have their own special uniqueness about them (i.e. Nile, Hate Eternal, Devourment, Aborted, Defeated Sanity, Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Guttural Secrete, etc.), which is probably the reason why they’re more successful than the average band of their genre. But you can’t have bands like these without a strong set of generic bands that stick to the traditional style of the genre. That’s where the leading bands like Pathology, Putrid Pile, and Disgorge come in. After listening to Orgy of Murder several times, it’s become apparent that Gorgasm is part of the leading group of generic brutal death metal bands.

Formed in 1994, Gorgasm have released three albums, each under a different label, since 2001. After releasing two albums that got them some publicity, the band split-up in 2006. After disputes were settled and some lineup changes occurred, the quartet inked a deal with Brutal Bands Records and released their long-overdue third full length release, titled Orgy of Murder. Thanks to the publicity that their second album brought them, Gorgasm’s third release proved to be a success and received generally positive feedback from both fans and critics alike. And, to be honest, when you compare it to all the other average brutal death records out there, this is a pretty fucking solid record.

The overall sound of the album has a lot of positive qualities, but there are quite a few things missing that would really bring up the brutality. Probably the most profound positive quality that Orgy of Murder carries is the fact that you can hear EVERYTHING clearly. There’s never a time where one of the instruments becomes dominant and covers everything else up. This is good, but it doesn’t give the music enough texture and variety to keep things interesting. Part of the reason why I love Cerebral Bore’s Maniacal Miscreation so much is because while you can hear everything, the guitars tend to cover up most of the bass, and then everything will go silent while the bassist bangs out a really cool fill while he’s exposed. That kind of texture and variety in dynamics keeps the music interesting. As attractive as it sounds, being able to hear everything all the time causes the music to get old fairly quickly.

The guitarists aren’t anything super special, but they do play some pretty catchy solos and really cool harmonizations like at the end of Exhibit of Repugnance. The bassist plays with a style that’s more commonly found in technical death than in traditional brutal death. This occasionally gets to the point to where the music has much more of a technical vibe to it. This technical vibe is increased by the fact that the guitar distortions aren’t super crunchy and metallic, therefore making the technical riffs sound much more complex than they actually are. As well as the bass, the drums are very complex. And, once again, this is increased by how the drums sound in the recording. A lot of technical bands, in order to make their music sound more complex than it actually is, will turn down the bass of the kick drums, turn down the volume of all the cymbals, and use very little buzz on the snare. To be honest, although the drummer is better than average when it comes to complexity, there really isn’t anything special about him. He does pretty much everything that needs to be done for the style of music he plays, and that’s it.

The vocalist is “unique” in a sense because he primarily does exhales instead of the traditional inhales that most bands of their type do. Are his exhaled growls any good? Eh, they’re ok, but nowhere near being someone that people would consider being outstanding. So although the growls aren’t anything special, they do give the music an interesting and unexpected twist. His sound is average, but I will say that he has some skill when it comes to speed. For example, the vocals on the second track, Dirty Cunt Beatdown, are fantastic. In this song, he shows variety in speed, pitch, and volume. But then again, most of the extremely deep growls are simply back-up growls from one of the guitarists.

Gorgasm have proved their status with Orgy of Murder. Although not the most skilled and creative brutal death band, they most certainly aren’t below-average. What people would probably like to see from them next is some progression. With no major issues, the only one being the monotonous sound of the music throughout the album, Gorgasm brings a basic (but very solid) piece of brutality to the table with bits and pieces of uniqueness. I would recommend this mainly just to the brutal death and death grind community. But if you want to dive into the genre with these guys, it’s not a bad place to start. I would give Orgy of Murder a score of 13/20. 

Craniotomy - Supply of Flesh Came Just in Time

For those of you that don’t already know, Amputated Vein Records is one of the more mentionable record labels in the brutal death and grind scene. Because I’m tired of giving a full introduction of the label, I’ll just say that some of the bands that have released albums through Amputated Vein include Pathology, All Shall Perish, Disentomb, Cephalotripsy, Viral Load, and Visceral Disgorge. Well, the label’s most recent release is the fourth release of Slovakian brutal death band Craniotomy. Having heard some pretty fantastic shit from this label (i.e. Slaughterbox, Disentomb, Relics of Humanity, etc.), I was pretty quick to give this fresh album a listen. Because it’s been awhile since this label put out a record, I thought that this might have been a hidden surprise they were waiting to release. Is Craniotomy the next big innovative band? Do they suck? Why am I asking questions?

Craniotomy’s fourth and freshest release, titled Supply of Flesh Came Just in Time has just about anything you could ask for from a good brutal death record. It’s got low-tuned guitars, inhaled vocals, blast beats, slamming breakdowns, absolute brutality, and a fine piece of graphic artwork to put the icing on the cake. Those of you that just want a solid chunk of brutality, this is something that needs to be checked out. Those of you that are looking for uniqueness…I’ll address that in a bit.

Let’s take a minute and look at the individual musicians for a second. The drums rarely fall out of time, his style is on the generic side, but he manages to keep a few unexpected tricks up his sleeve. The bassist plays with above-average grooves and colorful bass lines. Bassists either playing random low notes or following along with the guitars are way too common in this genre, so it’s refreshing to hear a bassist that can actually do something interesting. The guitarist’s skill doesn’t go above average, but never falls below. The distortion he has on his guitar is extremely edgy and sounds great when he plays those high-pitched harmonics. What’s truly interesting about the guitarist is the non-traditional playing style. The really catchy and groovy riffs that he plays are what give Craniotomy’s sound the small amount of uniqueness they have.

The album kicks off with an eerie intro that slightly grows louder into a driving headbang-appropriate section that’s catchy as fuck. Here’s where things get “interesting” you are introduced to the vocals at the beginning of a groovy breakdown. I actually thought that this was going to be really good…until those vocals came in. The vocals are not only uninteresting and monotonic, they fail to show any sort of anger or power. I would imagine that, in a record as brutal as this, that you would want the VOCALS to be brutal too. But no, this guy sounds like he’s snoring. We need to hear more dynamical variety, different pitches, and more of a powerful sound. One of the reasons that I love bands like Cerebral Bore and Guttural Secrete so much is because the vocals sound unique, powerful, varied in pitch, and just plain fucking brutal! In other words, the vocals bring the energy of the music way down. I can tell that all the vocalist is trying to do is get out the deepest sound possible. Although he is doing a good job at letting out some fucking deep inhales, it doesn’t provide any positive contributions for the rest of the band.

Other than that one letdown, to those of you expecting something super innovative, this isn’t for you. For the hardcore fans of slamming brutality, have at it. Craniotomy provides brutal death that’s more on the groovy side. Nothing more, nothing less. Are these guys shitty? Not in the slightest bit. So yeah, I would only recommend this to the brutal death fans and give it a score that lies right in the middle of the spectrum, making it not lie in a positive or negative area with a 10/20. 

Pathology - The Time of Great Purification

The brutal death genre seems to have two basic styles: the somewhat more technical, complex, and innovative style that usually have exhaled vocals. Some bands that I would consider to fall into that category would be Suffocation, Nile, Hate Eternal, Vital Remains, and Cryptopsy. Then we have the much harsher and less-appreciated kind of brutal death that is known for its inhaled vocals, bombarding blast beats, crushing breakdowns, and its more-or-less lack of intention to push the boundaries of the genre. Some of the most popular bands that play that style include Devourment, Cephalotripsy, Putrid Pile, Cerebral Bore, Disgorge, and the two most famous bands from there: Pathology and Aborted. I can definitely see how people wouldn’t consider Aborted to be one of those “slamming brutality” kinds of bands because of their experimentation and the less-brutal sound two of their albums have, but I would still consider them to be there with those other bands.

Unlike Aborted, Pathology doesn’t feel the need for experimentation and progression because they are just fine at what they’re doing now. They’re kind of like Motorhead in the sense that they’ve been playing the exact same thing for their entire career, yet it never seems to get old and dry. The sound that Pathology has created has been crafted so well that it has created a (seemingly) endless amount of possible songs without TOO much repetition. Also, the stuff that Pathology plays may be somewhat difficult to PLAY at times (for those of you that like to play covers), but obviously, they’re not that fucking hard to write. Why is that obvious? Well, let’s take a quick second to look at the fact that they’ve released an album every year since 2008. That’s a good strategy so that they can easily craft catchy and brutal songs in a short amount of time to keep listeners interested. And fortunately, that plan doesn’t seem to have failed quite yet.

One thing that really bothered me about their first few albums is that they had a different vocalist every album. This isn’t good for me because the sound of the vocals is part of what helps me connect with the band the most. If a band switches vocalists too often, I feel like I’m listening to a different band each time. If a band has a vocalist for two or more albums at a time, that’s fine. So I’m glad that they’ve been able to hold together a consistent lineup for more than two albums in a row.

Although they pull it off extremely well, I wouldn’t consider Pathology as being one of the best bands at writing those really fast bombarding parts with blast beats, tremolo picking, and just pure chaos. What Pathology is GREAT at is writing those fucking catchy songs that are a little on the slow side, but are perfect headbanging tracks, my favorite being Code Injection from Legacy of the Ancients. For me, those kinds of tracks that stick out to me the most on The Time of Great Purification are A Bleak Future and Tyrannical Decay. Tyrannical Decay’s highlight is the catchy attention-snatching intro. I LOVE the combination of the steady double-kicking with a snare hit every so often with the slightly slower guitar-chugging. I just can’t help but headbang to that intro! This is something that pops up every so often in the song. You want something that has an even more crushing and catchy sound with crushing breakdowns and headbanging sections? A Bleak Future is the song that thee wants.

A Bleak Future takes the listener back to the sound that many of the songs from Legacy of the Ancients have. This somewhat slower, but much darker and heavier sound is what Pathology does BEST. And I LOVE how they DON’T only do that because it should be the gem in the sand of an album, not the whole thing, because it has the capability of getting old WAY too fast. Another thing that The Time of Great Purification has more of than any other Pathology record is guitar solos. That was the thing that I noticed in last year’s Pathology record, Awaken to the Suffering; the amount of guitar solos had taken a sharp increase. The solos don’t seem super melodic or epic and they’re not outright shredding either. They’re just…solos. I don’t even know how to describe them! It’s not that they’re really bad or really good (in fact, they’re neither of those), it’s just that they have no unique qualities whatsoever other than that (oddly enough) they actually fit the rest of the music.

The vocals seem to be getting more complex with each album. In Awaken to the Suffering, the vocal patterns were much less predictable than the ones in Legacy of the Ancients. I wouldn’t say that the vocal patterns have made an even bigger jump in complexity in this album because they haven’t. They have gotten less predictable, but only slightly. I’m hoping that they stay that way, unless they decide to make the rest of the music more complex in order to even it out. I have absolutely nothing to complain about the overall sound of the instruments. The guitars have a type of distortion that you pretty much only hear on a Pathology record. Speaking of that, the distortion is almost exactly like the distortion on Awaken to the Suffering. It just sounds a little meatier because there’s a lot more bass guitar in the new record.

The drums aren’t too upfront and aren’t drowned out; they’re perfect. Pathology, yet again, comes out with another juicy slab of smashing brutal death that gives you Pathology and nothing else. People that are looking for boundary-pushing material wouldn’t be impressed by this because, well…Pathology just doesn’t feel the need to be a progressive band because they’re obviously having fun doing what they’ve been doing since 2006! I would definitely check this out; it’s not something that lets you down. I would give The Time of Great Purification 15/20. 

Cerebral Bore - Maniacal Miscreation

Scotland’s biggest brutal death band, Cerebral Bore, has been on track to become one of the biggest new bands in the genre ever since the release of this album in 2010. Since then, they’ve headlined tours in both North America and Europe, performed at numerous huge festivals, and, most recently, had a spot on America’s biggest death metal tour of the year, Summer Slaughter 2012. The question whether these guys could be the new Pathology or not isn’t really one that I want to discuss until they get a second album out on the streets. But that aside, this album is without a doubt one of the best brutal death albums of 2010 along with Disentomb’s Sunken Chambers of Nephilim and Pathology’s Legacy of the Ancients.

This is one of those albums where the immense amount of brutality isn’t mostly caused by the type of guitar distortions or the careful work at the mixing board during the production process. I can actually hear that every member is putting 100% of purebred ENERGY into everything that they’re doing. I guess that although this isn’t one of the most brutal albums out there, it is definitely one of the most energetic. I was going to see them when they were supposed to have a spot on the 2012 tour that included Goatwhore, Hate Eternal, and Fallujah, but apparently their visas didn’t go through and they couldn’t even make it into the United States. Now that I had the long-awaited pleasure to see them on stage a couple of days ago at this year’s Summer Slaughter Tour, I now know that not only is there an intense amount of energy amongst the members on stage AND in their music, but they have the special talent of directing some of that energy into the crowd in front of them.

I will say that when it comes to this kind of music, the sound of the vocals can really have a huge impact not only on the overall sound of the music, but the brutality. Som’s inhales aren’t really deep like the Devourment vocalist, but they’re not TOO high pitched (most of the time) like the vocalist for Slaughterbox. Som’s vocals have more of a really guttural and wet mid-ranged sound than anything else. But what I respect the most about her style is that she has variety in the pitch, intensity, and sound of her vocals. After listening to her vocals very carefully for the duration of the album, I can point out about 10 fairly different sounds that she makes. Yeah, I like inhaled vocals and brutal death and grind, but there seems to be a problem in a lot of the vocalists where they only make one or two different sounds, which eventually gives of a monotone sound.

The bassist is my favorite member of the band. I can tell just by listening to and watching him that he learned how to play bass on a jazz theory. He knows how to tune the sound of his guitar to get the BEST sound out of his intense slapping. This is sort of like Evan Brewer from The Faceless; he plays with a definite jazz style, but an extremely technical and brutal jazz style (if that makes any fucking sense at ALL).

I know that making this reference has the ability to cause major controversy and pointless bitching, but I see Cerebral Bore as being the Attila of brutal death. For those of you that have no idea who Attila is, they’re a deathcore band that plays a style that’s not a really angry/brutal sound (i.e. Whitechapel, etc.), but more of an extremely energetic and fun sound. So if you take the energy and fun aspect out of that, place it in a brutal death atmosphere, put in inhaled vocals, max out the brutality, and practically break off the energy knob by turning it up, you’ll get the motherfuckers known as none other than Cerebral Bore.

My favorite song off the record is, hands down, 24 Year Party Dungeon. If you want a BRUTAL song that is literally OVERFLOWING with energy and hilarious lyrics, this is what you need. Cerebral Bore go to great lengths and do the math to figure out the formula in order to create what to many people (including me) is one of the most fun brutal death songs to listen to. Although this song is not only a perfect conclusion, but the pinnacle of the entire album, this entire fucking record is one of the strongest brutal death records I’ve heard in quite some time (which for me isn’t very long because I’m not even 18 years old yet). I would give Maniacal Miscreation 18/20 for being one of my favorite brutal death records ever. 

Relics of Humanity - Guided by the Soulless Call

This is not what I was expecting AT ALL. Relics of Humanity released Guided by the Soulless Call earlier this month under Amputated Vein Records, which is the label that introduced me to the underground brutal death world with bands such as Visceral Disgorge, Bloodboil, Disentomb, Severed Crotch, Slaughterbox, Eden Beast, and Awaiting the Autopsy. If you want the full story, read the countless other Amputated Vein reviews I’ve written over the past year or so. One thing that bothers me about the label is that their updates are very rare. They posted an update announcing the release of Slaughterbox’s debut (which I own and love) in November of last year. They didn’t make any update at all until February of THIS year announcing the new signing of Belarusian brutal death band Relics of Humanity. In fact, they’re SO bad at updating that they STILL haven’t even made a post announcing the album’s release! But that aside, I ordered a copy from the band at their Bigcartel store and finally got it in the mail.

Let’s talk about the general sound of the individual instruments because they actually make a large contribution to the overall sound of the record. The guitars are tuned EXTREMELY, and I mean EXTREMELY low and have an EXTREMELY deep, crunchy distortion that sends chills down the backs of the weak. The drums are more in the background, but not to the point where they’re being covered up by anything. In this record, the drummer took the buzz off his snare drum, which is (obviously) a very risky choice. Why is it risky? Because it can ruin the fucking music! But then again, if the volume, sound, and intensity of the snare are perfect, it can then act as a positive element that brings the music up. The vocals are what make the biggest contribution to this band’s sound, but I’ll talk about them later on.

The sound that Relics of Humanity plays is very similar to Devourment. And I don’t necessarily mean the speed and brutality part; I’m talking about the scary and atmospheric darkness that it creates. Think of the really creepy and dark sound that Devourment plays, take out the speed, and turn up the creepy darkness factor to the maximum. If you’re looking for SLAMMING brutality that sounds like it was just dragged out of the deepest pits of the underworld where people only rot in agony and depression; you NEED to get this record. Before the album’s release, Amputated Vein posted one of the tracks from the album as a teaser (the song being Pray for Obscurity). This was the song that made me say “FINALLY something DIFFERENT!”

I’m being honest here, as much as I LOVE extreme brutality; I’ve gotten a little tired of listening to new bands that have NOTHING but tasteless brutality. This was right about the time where I started my search for brutal artists that played something more than JUST brutality. So once I heard the song that was as thick as old molasses and creepy as FUCK, I decided that I’d order the album when it came out (since Amputated Vein doesn’t do pre-orders).

The flaws in this album are strongly overridden by the positives, which is kind of ironic because one of the flaws that this band has is not only one of my pet-peeves, it actually enhances the really mushy, atmospheric sound the band plays. It’s kind of hard to imagine just by reading text, but seriously! Listen to one of the songs off the record, and you will see that the drummer kind of has some minor tempo issues, but it just makes the music sound THAT scarier!! Another element that enhances the nightmare-inducing sound is the vocalist. Probably one of the DEEPEST and wettest inhales I’ve ever heard in my life with effects on it making it sound like you’re hearing it inside an underground cave. That’s how I would describe the vocals; and I fucking love it.

Relics of Humanity should be the new hot topic in the underground brutality world because of their uniqueness and desire to bring something new to the slaughter. With a sound that comes from the veins of Devourment, Shattered Eyes, Wormed, and Awaiting the Autopsy; I would give Guided by the Soulless Call 17/20 for being one of the better brutal death albums of 2012 (so far) along with At the Gate of Sethu, Anomalies of Artificial Origin, and Global Flatline. 

Truculency - Eviscerate the Paraplegic

Ok, time to review another underground brutal death band. This time, it’s going to be a band that released this album under Amputated Vein Records: Truculency. Although Amputated Vein hasn’t always been the most dependable label when it comes to quality, they sure know how to deliver brutality. And I think that I’ve expressed well enough that brutality alone just won’t cut it for me. Well, they sure do have tons of bludgeoning brutality, but that’s not all that Truculency put into this record. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone outside the underground brutal death community, but this isn’t a record that I would put the “STEER CLEAR” sticker on (that bands like Putrefy, Guttural Engorgement, and Waking the Cadaver have received).

One thing that most brutal death (especially the underground type) doesn’t seem to have is the presence of guitar solos. I fully understand that in many cases, guitar solos are not what the music requires. Putting in guitar solos when they’re not needed can make the music sound over-cluttered, unorganized, and just not good. Even when their presence doesn’t hurt the music at all, bands still have the capability of fucking everything up when choosing what to do with the background music (if any) during the guitarist’s solo. I’m not talking about bass solos, that’s a topic for another day (don’t think that I’m dissing bassists, because I AM a bassist). Hearing guitar solos in brutal death is really something I look forward to when I hear about it because I want to know whether the band is good enough to totally fuck up the music (and yes, obviously the guitarist has to be good). So when I hear Truculency’s guitar solos, I don’t hear disaster, but I don’t hear a miracle either; the guitar solos and the way they’re implemented in the music is completely mediocre. The lead guitarist obviously went for the bare minimum, but for him, the “minimum bar” was set at a much higher level than usual. I hear a guitar solo that sounds completely void of any kind of creativity or emotion…but still catchy and fitting with the music.

This is going to sound really geeky, but the thing that I like the most about Truculency is the arrangements and their extremely solid song structures. For me, being completely predictable isn’t a good thing, but neither is being completely unpredictable (with the exception of Iwrestledabearonce and a few others). Truculency has figured out how to make a nearly perfect balance between the two. There are parts when the brutal breakdown comes when you expect it, and there are parts that kind of slow things down for a bit with a slightly repetitive guitar riff, then explode into a cacophony of brutal blast beats and extremely technical guitar shredding. This balance between being predictable and unpredictable that Truculency has created is something that not only enhances the music for myself, but is the key to making the listener happy by giving them the brutal sound they want, but with some hidden surprises to keep them engaged.

The vocalist is obviously an example of a very good death metal vocalist. I’ve come to figure out that some people’s vocal chords are built in a certain way that enables them to make EXTREMELY low exhale growls. I’m not talking about the kind of deep that you hear in Whitechapel, Amorphis, Opeth/Bloodbath, and The Faceless, I’m talking about shit like Nile, pre-1995 Cannibal Corpse, and Mummification. You can tell that he’s exhaling because it sounds really breathy and it sounds really fucking shitty when he actually DOES do inhales. Either he’s really good at making a DEEP inhale sound like an exhale, or he’s just doing really fucking deep exhale growls that I wish I could do (my growls sound like the ex-The Faceless vocalist that did the vocals on Planetary Duality, Demon Carcass). But that aside, his vocals are extremely deep and not only matches the brutality of the music, it enhances it and makes it stronger.

The drummer is the main problem that this band has. He has astonishing skill and great technique, but he has an issue of falling out of tempo. I would imagine that it’s because of the high intensity and speed of the music. Also, I can tell that he’s playing the drums REALLY hard. He probably spends his miniscule paycheck on drum-skin and cymbal replacements because he keeps breaking them. So obviously, if you’re hitting the drums too hard, you’re going to get tired. The thing that sucks is that the rest of the music isn’t going to slow down for you, it’s going to keep going. And if the rest of the band DOES slow down for you, they’re not going to notice that you’ve slowed down for a couple of seconds because they’re so focused on what they’re doing. In Truculency, they mercilessly push through it and get the job done without stopping or slowing down for others. So after the drummer does some more bench presses, he shouldn’t have any problem at all by the time the next Truculency album comes out.

Overall, this record has amazing vocals, exceptional guitars, great bass, amazing drums that could use a little tweaking, and an overall powerful and (of course) BRUTAL sound. I would give this record 16/20 for having positive ends so big and powerful that they almost drown out the negative ends. Along with that, most of the guitar solo sections come with a melodic sound that blends very well with the rest of the song. Although I wouldn’t personally recommend this to anyone outside the underground brutal death community, this wouldn’t be a bad album to check out if you’re unfamiliar with the sound of underground brutality. 

Nile - At the Gate of Sethu

Ok, here’s another album to add on the “2012 gems” list. Nile, one of my very, very favorite bands released their seventh full-length album just a little while ago. For me, Nile’s quality has been fairly consistent, but not TOTALLY consistent. I know people are going to shoot me for saying this, but Annihilation of the Wicked and In their Darkened Shrines are fantastic records, but probably Nile’s worst. Black Seeds of Vengeance and Those Whom the Gods Detest remain my two favorites, but I don’t know, At the Gate of Sethu is pretty damn amazing. But an album has to be in my collection for at least seven months and I have to know it forwards and backwards before I will consider it to be a “favorite”. But, considering that the lowest score I’ve ever given a Nile album is 14/20, their dependability is pretty fucking strong. If you didn’t notice, Nile decided to take an extra year to release this album (probably because of the constant touring they did, I saw them three times in two years!). But the extra year was worth it, because Nile is back with, that’s right, another 20/20 album.

In At the Gates of Sethu, Nile brings back the sounds from early works like Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka and the Festivals of Atonement [EP]. But of course, Nile still keeps many of the elements that they introduced in Ithyphallic and Those Whom the Gods Detest. But being the fan of their earlier works that I am, I can hear a lot of the underground brutal death elements that they used when they WERE an underground brutal death band (as impossible as it sounds, Nile was, in fact, one of “them”). There is actually a lot less of Dallas’ mid-ranged growls and much more of Karl’s DEEP spine-chilling growls.

I know that there are a lot of bands that I absolutely love and consider “one of my favorite bands”. But I plan to clarify that in the future, as well as make it a point that Nile is a band that will never leave that list and holds an amount of my respect that only six other bands have built up the capability of holding. But that aside, the point of an album review is to dissect the album and say WHY this and WHY that instead of just saying this and that.

I’m pretty sure that none of these bands have ever influenced Nile’s music, but there are a lot of traits that this album carries that remind me of other groups. This is a good thing because it helps me make connections and further understand Nile’s extremely complex sound. A lot of the really fast parts that have bombarding blast beats and super deep guitars remind me of groups like Cease of Breeding and Dying Fetus. The reason why is because of the really crunchy sound that the distorted guitars and the overdriven blast beats create. In brutal death metal especially, this is the type of thing that I can tend to have a soft spot for. Another thing that I love to make connections with (and something that is actually kind of a newish element) are the breakdowns in almost every track. Yes, I know that Nile has always used breakdowns like in the title track for Black Seeds of Vengeance and the legendary Kafir! breakdown, but the breakdowns in this album seem to have a little more groove to them than brutality. Yes, they still have brutality, but they have a Dying Fetus-style groove to them that actually changes the vibe of the moment.

Something that comes with the singing in the songs is melodic guitar riffs. No, I’m not talking about those fucking awesome Egyptian acoustic guitar parts, I’m talking about really dark Hypocrisy-style melodic stuff. Although Hypocrisy most likely isn’t the BEST description for what I’m talking about, you can kind of hear some Hypocrisy in their music. I guess the Egyptian/middle eastern influence that Nile has always had is what’s solely responsible for the extremely unique sound that the melodic sections carry.

The biggest new element that the band implements in this album was introduced in a couple tracks on Ithyphallic. In Those Whom the Gods Detest, this element was used in the title track and in a few others. I’m talking about singing. And no, I’m not talking about that ambient east-african style singing that you hear at the beginning of the songs (especially on their 2009 record). I’m talking about actual singing. When you listen to the chorus of Those Whom the Gods Detest, there’s singing that’s following Dallas’ demonic growls. Well, this element is used in At the Gate of Sethu as well. I’m not going to say which tracks because the song names are too long and I don’t want to burn up typing energy (lazy me).

An element that Nile has brought back from the earlier days is the shortish Egyptian-themed instrumental tracks. Yes, I know that several songs on Ithyphallic has intros like this that lasted for several minutes, but even those sounded different than the ones used on Black Seeds of Vengeance and Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka. The more recent interludes sound more ambient and powerful while the older ones just sound fucking creepy and dark. This is something that, for me, has had a huge effect on the overall sound of this record when you listen to it straight through in one sitting.

Anything else that I haven’t already mentioned is indescribable. Nile’s music is so complex and hard to understand that there’s still a lot about them that I have yet to fully understand. Anything from influence, method of composition, and certain techniques are weaved in so tightly with a billion other elements that it’s nearly impossible to understand it all. This is partly why everyone loves Nile’s music so much. It shines with common brutal death and death metal elements that anyone can understand, but it also is filled to the brim with shit that even musicians from the best metal bands of all-time have given countless credit to. That in itself shows Nile’s true power.

Being the best brutal death band to walk the face of the earth, Nile continues to alter their sound with more progressive elements and technicality. I’m fully aware that there are a few people that have considered Nile to be tech death, which is completely understandable due to Karl Sander’s godlike guitar work and George’s godlike drumming (literally godlike). The score of this album is unquestionably perfect. I wouldn’t even THINK of giving it anything less. At the Gate of Sethu has exceeded my expectations and has proven that Nile has still got what it takes to be one of the most brutal death metal bands on the planet. Who would I recommend this album to? YOU! 

Putrefy - One Nation Under Gore

I forget how I came across Putrefy. All that I remember was that it was in the summer of 2010 when I REALLY got into the whole underground brutal death thing. I was fascinated by any band that could play pure fucking brutality. I remember seeing Putrefy on Spirit of Metal and noticing the (few, but) high ratings users had given it. One thing that I remember was that besides the extreme brutality, the vocals kind of bothered me (possibly an understatement). I loved the really thick and crunchy sound the guitars had and I thought that the sound of the drums was pretty cool. Well now that I’ve listened to this album for the first time in what seems like forever, I can now say with pure confidence that this album is a worthless piece of crap that doesn’t deserve to be listened to, touched, looked at, or even thought about. Out of all of the brutal death/grindcore/etc. albums that I’ve heard, there are only two albums that are as bad as this (which means that there’s obviously something wrong with Putrefy). But instead of going on a pointless rant about how this albums sucks, I’m going to answer your question as to WHY it so repulsive!

Here’s the surprising thing, THIS BAND HAS BEEN AROUND SINCE 1992, which means that they’ve had PLENTY of time to improve! Although I should mention that they split-up in the mid-1990s (I understand why after listening to their early shitty demos) and then got back together in 2002 with the drummer being the only original member. But to be honest, the new lineup isn’t any better than the old lineup. In fact, they’re 100 times worse than they did in the early 1990s. Bands that suck THIS bad usually don’t last very long at all, and yet Putrefy has managed to break the 20-year mark. How is this possible? I have no fucking idea.

It’s impossible to pick a favorite OR least favorite member of the band because they all suck shit-dripping asshole. The guitarist knows how to create a cool distortion, but that’s it. He attempts to solo (like in Fresh Meat) and fails to even pull off a simple sweeping shred! He does have the ability to tremolo pick, but not for very long. He plays really fast for about 20 seconds and then gets tired and falls out of time. If I were him, I would postpone the album-writing process so that I could get those skills down and PLAY BETTER! There’s nothing wrong with postponing an album (especially for a band THIS underground) in order to obtain a basic and much-needed skill to play the music. The problem is that he went ahead and tried to do it anyway…and failed miserably.

The drummer, the only original member, the guy that’s had THE LONGEST TIME TO IMPROVE, is one of the worst drummers I’ve ever heard in my entire life (that is not an exaggeration). He can’t keep time to save his lunch money (let alone his life). His blast beats are very sloppy and NEVER keep time. He fails completely to stay in time with the guitarist (and vice versa). In any kind of music (especially music that’s this fast and demandingly brutal), it is EXTREMELY CRITICAL that the entire band must stay on tempo with as much precision as possible! If the band fails to do that (a little sloppiness here and there is understandable), the music falls apart completely and sounds like a wet, shit-dripping asshole.

The vocalist is repulsive and makes me cringe every time a sound comes out of his mouth. Yes, it is possible to put dynamics and emotion into inhaled vocals; it’s just really hard. Most vocalists that do inhaled vocals get along with the bare minimum, which is fine because at least they show SOME skill. But this guy sounds EXACTLY the same for the ENTIRE duration of the album! Not only that, he’s turned up way too loud and there’s too much reverb on his voice, making the whole band sound unrealistic. His “vocals” are annoying, sickening, and just plain disgustingly HORRIBLE! In fact, I can’t stand to think about this album for another fucking SECOND! Do not waste your time, money, or brain space on this record because brokeNCYDE and Limp Bizkit are more worthy of your time than this record. Oh, by the way, I would give this album 1/20, but would give it a negative-numbered score if I could.  

Guttural Engorgement - The Slow Decay of Infested Flesh

Guttural Engorgement is one of the many bands that I discovered on Amputated Vein Records’ website (some of those bands I’ve fallen in love with). I saw Guttural Engorgement advertised as “progressive slam death”. Well, I like slamming brutality, so it can’t be too bad, but how the hell can it be progressive?? Well, after a few months of listening to this album, there isn’t anything progressive about them that I can hear. But if you have proof that they are or want to point anything out that I missed in their music that can be considered progressive, feel free to drop a comment below letting me know! Ok, this album is kind of hard for me to listen to because I like grindcore, and I like really slow brutal death slams, but I’m not a huge fan of them being combined (just like what Awaiting the Autopsy does).

If you’re not a DIEHARD fan of grindcore, SLAMMING brutal death, goregrind/pornogrind, or death grind, there’s no reason for you to read this review because this album isn’t for you (unless you just feel like reading reviews for some reason). When you ask around, even plenty of grindcore fans don’t consider this record to be amazing. But of course, people usually don’t give much publicity to bands that aren’t amazing. I certainly have heard worse than Guttural Engorgement, but seriously, these guys kind of screwed up badly.

Here’s where the grindcore seeps in; almost all of the songs are under two minutes in length. As well as that, the legendary grindcore shriek that only sounds good in grindcore and, if used in any other kind of record, can fucking BUTCHER the music in a split second. This is exactly what Awaiting the Autopsy did (is there an echo in here?), except their music is much better than Guttural Engorgement’s. Since Guttural Engorgement doesn’t have a female vocalist like Awaiting the Autopsy, the shrieks are delivered at a lower pitch. But seriously, they kind of ruin the moment. The reason why the shrieks ruin the moment is because EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING in this album is so fucking DEEP and tuned so LOW. The guitars and bass are SLOW and DEEP, the inhaled growls are deeper than anything I’ve even heard in my life. You have all that, and then “BLUAAAAHHHH!!!!! BLUAH BLEAH BLEAHHHH!!!!!!” It just doesn’t sound cool at all, man!!

But the vocalist isn’t the bad member of the band, his growls fit the music perfectly; it’s the drummer and the guitarists I have a problem with. The drummer just sucks in general. I swear he has never been able to keep a steady beat in his life. His ability to keep time SUCKS, being forced to play extremely slow tempos only makes it harder (because it’s harder to keep time when playing slow because you keep unconsciously speeding up, which is why the good musicians have the ability to control that). He doesn’t know how to play a blast beat, his double kicking sounds completely uneven when he attempts to play fast, and he plays the EXACT same drum pattern in every single REALLY slow breakdown. Ok, now I’m getting to the point where the vocalist’s deep growls are getting really bland and increasingly annoying (just thought I’d throw that in there).

The faults of the drummer cause the guitarists to sound like elephant diarrhea. But the guitarists and bassist really aren’t that bad and do a great job of keeping the music going despite the anchor known as the drummer. The bassist plays a number of complex bass lines to keep each song at least somewhat unique. Although they don’t sound any different if you don’t have an ear for bass tones like I do (mainly because I’m a bassist myself). Oh, by the way, I scored this album 6/20 for completely failing to impress me, but not making me regurgitate my burger because it’s not a total disaster and I’ve heard a plethora of worse bands. I would only recommend this to hardcore goregrind/pornogrind, grindcore, and brutal death fans.  

Abominable Putridity - The Anomalies of Artificial Origin

Abominable Putridity was the band that proved to me that some of the best underground brutal death bands come from Russia. I’m not saying that THE BEST come from Russia, I’m saying that most of the Russian brutal death bands are fucking awesome. Not only is there Abominable Putridity, but there’s also Aposepsy, Katalepsy, Aborted Fetus, and Abnormity (for some weird reason a lot of them start with the same letter). As well as brutal death, but Russia has a very strong depressive black metal scene that includes one of my favorite bands ever, Wintercult. But Russian brutality is what I’m here to tell you about, especially in the likes of this particular CD which I bought a month or so ago as well as a shirt (both from the record label, Brutal Bands), The Anomalies of Artificial Origin.

More or less, Abominable Putridity is Russian death metal at its best. Not only have they acclaimed the status and recognition with the community and their fans, but with the industry as well. Through quality in music, great sales (apparently all of the pre-orders for this album sold out almost a week in advance), and a great record label (Brutal Bands), Abominable Putridity’s popularity is more than well-deserved. Ok, now that I’ve given an overview of Abominable Putridity’s status, why the fuck do I love this album so much??

Some people would beg to differ on this point, but I believe that when it comes to the “generic” forms of a genre, that there’s still plenty of room for variation within those walls. For example, in deathcore, all of the generic bands share 80-90% of the same traits. But when you put Suicide Silence, Impending Doom, Emmure, and Suffokate (all generic deathcore bands) side-by-side, you can still pick out a fair amount of differences. Suicide Silence is the heaviest of the group, Impending Doom’s breakdowns have more of a modernized Meshuggah sound, Emmure plays nothing but simple breakdowns, and Suffokate is much slower and doesn’t play any blast beats. Abominable Putridity is a generic brutal death band, but still has plenty of qualities that make them different from the rest.

Although all of the musicians in this band are fantastic, the drummer and the vocalist stand out to me the most. Matti Way, the vocalist, made his claim to fame by being the vocalist for brutal death masters Pathology on Age of Onset and Legacy of the Ancients. But also, he’s one of those vocalists that has made a large number of guest appearances on albums by (just to name a few) Deeds of Flesh, Condemned, Slaughterbox, and Flesh Consumed. And if you haven’t heard his vocals before, take my word for it that he is one of the best slamming brutal death vocalists in the genre and definitely knows his stuff. Also, the drummer is an extremely creative member of the band. The most unique thing about what this guy plays is that he rarely plays blast beats (unless he’s playing his interpretation/version of a blast beat that doesn’t even sound like one). Instead, he does literally everything else a death metal drummer can think of. Showing variety in the drumming is something that too many brutal death albums lack due to most drummers only playing blast beats or a single drum pattern they come up with. He’s not a drummer that CONSTANTLY plays ultra-fast, but that doesn’t mean that he never does, because he can play some fucking BLASTING speeds that mow you down.

The guitars are very well-rounded as far as how much bass and treble goes, but the bass guitar’s volume could use to be much louder. Either that or he’s playing more mid-range and high notes than I’m used to, which wouldn’t surprise me because there are moments where the guitars are taking a really technical climb in pitch and I can hear the bass doing the same thing as well. Aside from that, this band is tighter than the pussy of a toddler, their slamming breakdowns pound you ten feet into the pavement, and the song structure is very organized and none of the songs sound the same. I would give this record 18/20 for being my favorite Russian brutal death record and for blowing my mind apart (almost literally) with its musical quality and bombarding brutality. 

Vomit the Soul - Apostles of Inexpression

I don’t know why I’ve procrastinated writing this review for so long because this is one of my favorite brutal death bands. Anyway, Italy’s Vomit the Soul (that’s right, ITALY!) has been one of the dominants of the European brutal death scene, with several labels eager to get the band on their roster. Vomit the Soul eventually released my favorite album of theirs, Apostles of Inexpression through an extremely well-known label called Unique Leader Records. They hardly need an introduction considering they’ve had/have bands such as Rings of Saturn, Decrepit Birth, Mortal Decay, Gorod, Fallujah, Psycroptic, Spawn of Possession, Vile, and Hour of Penance. Although Vomit the Soul ceased to exist last year, this album still deserves to be known because, well, it’s awesome!

I’m going to start with my favorite member, the vocalist. This guy can do some of the best pig squeals and inhaled vocals the brutal death genre has to offer. Just listen to any of the songs off the album and you will know what I’m talking about. Although he’s not screaming (like the Slaughterbox vocalist does), his vocals are fairly high-pitched and meaty. I will be one of the first supporters of the next band this guy either joins or starts. Also, the EXTREMELY razor-sharp sound of the guitars back up the vocals perfectly and without flaw. But, the bass isn’t going to stick out much unless you have a good set of speakers (not amazing, just better than average). This is true, but I also want to trick you into turning up your subs so you can be sure to hear the bomb-like bass booms that are let off at the start of some of the breakdowns.

I don’t even know where to start with this drummer. He’s amazing and is perfect for the style of music, that’s for sure. But I feel that there’s something (positive) about him that sets him apart from the majority of brutal death drummers….something that makes him one of the best. It could be his energetic style, his amazing footwork, his efficiency, I don’t know. He has a great talent for not overdoing the chaos in places where most other drummer wouldn’t be able to control themselves. By that I mean randomly hitting the toms and cymbals to create an excess burst of energy. The drummer has tons of technicality in what he plays, but he never makes unnecessary fills or blast beats.  

The songs do differ from each other, but it would be hard to tell them apart if you’re not familiar with the brutal death genre and haven’t listened to it profusely. This is one of those albums where every song has the same juicy, brutal sound (which takes up the majority of the skeleton of each song) but also with its own unique trait that makes it easy to recognize. Other than that, awesome brutality for all!!

This is one of my favorite brutal death albums and I highly recommend that you pick it up at Unique Leader’s online store because I don’t know if this record has very many reprints left in its lifetime. I would give this album 19/20 for being amazing and…amazing. Pick up this shit before it disappears! 

Loculus - Sinew [EP]

Those of you that attend metal shows know that there’s almost always one or two local opening acts. Most of the opening acts at the Seattle shows I go to are shitty deathcore bands. But there have been some gems that have gotten their name out, bands such as Blood and Thunder (melodic death), Six Days of Darkness (deathcore), Phalgeron (death metal), Super Happy Story Time Land, (melodic death), The Accused (thrash metal), and a few others. Loculus was one of the local openings for a show I saw just last month with Origin, Aborted, Decrepit Birth, Rings of Saturn, Cattle Decapitation, and Battlecross. I came to that show to see technicality, but most of all, brutality. I’ll tell you this, Loculus got things started on the right note by bringing nothing but brutality. Having a pure brutal death sound with some great breakdowns, I had to pick up this EP at their merch table. When I looked them up on Spirit of Metal the next day, to my surprise, Loculus isn’t from Washington, they’re from fucking Virginia! What the hell was an east coast band doing all the way over here being the local opener for a show?? That aside, I’ve been super eager to tell all of you about this monstrous EP.

When I listened to the CD for the first time, I instantly recognized all of the songs from the show (I even remembered the song titles). But before we get into each individual song, let’s discuss the album and band as a whole. After seeing them live and listening to this EP that was released two years ago, there’s an obvious amount of improvement that had been made. The biggest improvement that was made was in the drums. The drummer at the show was fucking barbaric with his kick drumming and his blast beats. But in this EP, the kick drums aren’t that fast and the drummer falls in-and-out of time in some places. But in this recording, the drummer plays a very generic, but modernized brutal death style. He does show a lot of creativity and a strong ability to keep things interesting by not just doing “blast beat…..breakdown….fill….blast beat….fill…breakdown..etc.”

The guitars have a really thick and crunchy distortion; just what I like to hear! They’re not like many brutal death records where the distortion is so high that the chords they’re playing are less than obvious; you can hear everything the guitarists are playing loud and clear. The bass is nice and meaty which gives a fat lower end to increase the brutality level. The vocals are very deep inhaled growls that have a strong and clean sound. I can’t think of any other way to describe them.

Ok, now I’m going to do what I do with every EP I review, to a track-by-track analysis.

The first song on the EP is Chainsaw Disfigurement (which is apparently their most popular track). Although this track has plenty of awesome grooves, the drumming is very loose and the band doesn’t seem to be very tight at all. The kick drumming seems to be out of time, the guitarists are obviously having some trouble playing some of the technical riffs, and the song is unorganized. The breakdowns also seem randomly placed and unpredictable (the bad kind of unpredictable). On the upside, the song isn’t a complete disaster and the vocals are AMAZING!

Hacked Apart is definitely my favorite track. When they came on with that explosive intro, I couldn’t contain myself at all in the pit; I went fucking crazy. The guitars and drums still don’t quite match up, but they’re not nearly as bad as in Chainsaw Disfigurement. The vocalist has one of the coolest inhaled growls, I can’t stress that enough, they sound AWESOME!! This song is much more interesting than the previous one in terms of structure and composition. It has a much more complex song structure and does a great job of not repeating the shitty riffs and repeating the catchy ones. The breakdown in the second half is brutal as fuck, and the song even includes a shredding guitar solo! How often do you hear a guitar solo in a brutal death song that hasn’t been done by Nile, Suffocation, Hate Eternal, or Aborted??

Ocular Extirpation has the same basic sound as Chainsaw Disfigurement, so I’m not going to spend time repeating myself. The Mutilator is a headbanging song. The track kicks off with a show chugging guitar riff that is guaranteed to at least get your head nodding. This is the brutal track that the crowd loved and drooled over when I saw them. Overall, this EP is a fucking monster and I highly recommend that you pick it up if you’re a fan of slamming brutal death. I would give this record a score of 14/20 for being great for a debut release. 

Pathology - Surgically Hacked

A little while back, I decided to write a review series covering Pathology’s complete discography. That is, except their debut, which I couldn’t find until two weeks ago. But now that I’ve listened to this landmark that’s the first album of one of the most famous bands that have always had the super underground brutal death sound, I think it’s fair to say that it’s nothing like I was expecting. Released through one of my favorite record labels, Amputated Vein, Surgically Hacked now has a place in my collection which makes my Pathology section complete! Honestly, I was expecting something a lot like my favorite Pathology album, Incisions of Perverse Debauchery. But instead, I was met with a much more underground and premature sound (which answers the question why there’s only three or so critics that have reviewed this album besides myself).

I’m going to be honest; this album is going to be pretty hard to enjoy if you’re not already an experienced brutal death listener that has had bands like Guttural Secrete and Devourment desensitize you with their unmatched brutality. Surgically Hacked isn’t Pathology’s most brutal album, but it certainly has the most traces of grindcore. The grindcore part of it is relevant in the song lengths and the seemingly random speed blasts that make the songs flyby like lightning, making the album sound like it’s over in seconds. Either that’s the case, or I have weird perception issues with this album, because it feels really short every time I listen to it. Let’s look into the technical part of it.

When you listen to the album as a whole, the drums sound exactly how they should. But when you mentally strip the other elements away and leave the drums by themselves (in other words focus on the drums and block everything else out), the different drum patters seem randomly generated and out of place. But that’s the case in a lot of metal albums, where each part individually sounds horrible yet they fit perfectly when put together. There really isn’t anything special about the guitars other than that it’s completely generic brutal death styles and riffs being played. The problem I’m having with this record is the amount of treble the overall band has; it’s overpowering. I have to listen to this album on my fancy headphones that have tons of bass in order to play this at higher volumes without hurting my ears.

I’m glad the vocals are buried by the rest of the band because they kind of suck. After hearing the really moist guttural growls from Incisions of Perverse Debauchery and the growls from the song Code Injection, these inhaled growls are fucking shitty compared to that. But when you compare this album to the majority of albums with this style, they come off as being plain and generic. They don’t suck, but there isn’t anything too special about them. It seems like there’s a lot of negativity in this review considering that I gave this a 15/20 score. The reason why I like this album is because the band lays out the grindcore influence perfectly. The pure chaos and brutality of this grincore-influenced brutal death album gets me really energized after a couple of listens. Like I said before, this album is for pure fans of brutality and people curious to hear what underground brutality sounds like.

I can’t hear any bass at all, and that’s the big reason why I don’t like this album as much as Incisions of Perverse Debauchery. If there were at least SIGNS of a lower end, I would be much happier; because brutal death is nothing without tons of crushing bass. Overall, this album isn’t bad at all. Despite its flaws in several sections, when you look at this piece of chaos as a whole, it’s one hell of a record that is a must-have for all fans of slamming brutality. I would rate this album 15/20 (75%).  

Aborted - Global Flatline

For some reason, Aborted is one of the most popular death metal bands in Washington. So when the release date for this album was released, it seemed that almost every metalhead in my area was eager to get their hands on it. I had already gotten my ticket to go see them with Origin, Decrepit Birth, Rings of Saturn, Cattle Decapitation, Battlecross, and Loculus. Since the album was released before the show, I was one of the many brutality-hungry metalheads to jump on it that morning. The majority opinion of the previous release, Strychnine.213, wasn’t too bright. But oddly enough, besides Goremageddeon, that album was always a favorite of mine. This was probably because it was the first Aborted album I heard, and I first listened to it around the time of its release in 2008, which was when I was still in the “early metalhead stages” where anything with growling/screaming and highly-distorted guitars made me happy. But even now, four years later, I still thoroughly enjoy listening to that record! But this review isn’t about Strychnine; it’s about the overdue follow-up record, Global Flatline.

After the release of Global Flatline, I listened to it constantly for about a day or so, and then I got distracted with other bands and albums I was discovering (like Sinister, Enthroned, and Inquisition). And, of course, I didn’t really listen to it too much when the Occupation Domination tour drew close…I was too busy masturbating to the sexiness of the new Cattle Decapitation record. The main question that everyone has about every new release is “how has their sound changed?” Well, I’ve been doing some research on what the majority of Aborted’s fans are into, even though it was already somewhat obvious. The majority of Aborted’s fans are primarily into the EXTREME slamming brutality created by bands like Dying Fetus, Guttural Secrete, Devourment, Pathology, Putrid Pile, and Skinless. As well as that (also not surprising to me) there are a lot of people that are fans of the EXTREMELY brutal deathcore stuff that are Aborted fans (stuff like Whitechapel, Suicide Silence, Carnifex, Fit for an Autopsy, Oceano, The Red Chord, etc.) Here’s the interesting thing about Global Flatline, it’s the first Aborted record that’s brutal enough to make the brutal metallers happy and contains breakdowns deep enough to satisfy deathcore fans. No, Goremageddeon doesn’t count because its brutality has proved to be too much for most deathcore fans (not to put them down for anything). In other words, this album is a cacophony of different sounds Aborted has used throughout their career.

Once the intro track was finished, I was expecting to have an explosion of chaos go off right in my face. But Aborted made sure to keep things fresh and unexpected and started with a much slower groove with blasting double kicks. And then, when a randomly recorded voice says “I’m gonna fucking rape your soul!” I know that Aborted still has a core made out of 100% slamming brutality. Aborted has always had a weird habit of having A LOT of something and a fair amount of everything else. The Purity of Perversion has A LOT of bass, Goremageddeon has A LOT of guitar crunch, Strychnine.213 has A LOT of blastbeats and A LOT of growling and screaming at the same time. Well, the thing with Global Flatline is that it has A LOT of…..wait…there isn’t really anything that stands out to me other than that it has more screaming than any other Aborted album. So Global Flatline seems much more balanced out than previous records.

The drums are bombarding as always, the riffs that the guitarists are playing are slightly more complex than before, which is a good thing. Although it’s obvious that he’s there, I can’t really hear the bassist as much as I’d like to. Probably the parts where he’s heard easiest is when he’s doing a slide right before a breakdown. Probably my favorite thing about Aborted is how their vocalist puts his screaming on top of his guttural inhaled growls in the studio; it just sounds so cool! I love it! Although there’s plenty of that in this album, the screams have taken over in terms of volume and frequency. Overall, this album is fantastic and a great follow-up to Strychnine. Having more material than any other Aborted album, Global Flatline earns my score of 18/20 with my favorite song being The Origin of Disease.