Devourment - Pious Impiety (EP, 2026) Review

After a seven-year void, Texas pioneers of brutal death metal, Devourment, have returned with a surprise new 12-minute EP that emphatically proves they haven't diminished an ounce of their purpose: absolute heaviness. The '10s saw the band releasing two albums with fairly different responses from the audience, yet I fully enjoyed both Conceived In Sewage (2013) and Obscene Majesty (2019), the latter being of course better.

 As with everyone else, I didn't see Pious Impiety coming, a three-track 7" of the band's relentless, trademark slabs of slam death, heavy in a way that suggests the band can take any kind of hiatus they want and still remain on point afterwards. 

Acranius - Whiteout (2026) Review

It's always nice to come across albums with confidence, unapologetic about their identity. Having a taste for non-conventional music always comes with the silent danger of a false sense of raised intellect when one reaches its more hard-to-reach branches, especially in extreme metal. Since forming in Rostock, Germany in 2009, Acranius have happily stayed on the far side of that highway, steadily merging death metal, slam grooves and breakdown-heavy aggression with crystal clear sound on top a gorilla attitude in person and material. I've partied enough with their first three albums, but Mercy Denied (2022) turned out to be even more punishing than normal, and the band keeps on that trajectory with latest release, Whiteout.

There are nine tracks and a total of 23 minutes duration, so there's no time to waste getting to the point. Whiteout's blueprint of stomping blast beats, mixture of gutturals and monster growls, crushing tempos hitting like slabs of concrete immediately explode on the two-minute opener "Prove Them Wrong". Cutting but pristine and loud production, allowing for the guitars to punch and the bass to rumble ominously underneath, as Acranius torture the guitars not for riff ingenuity, but for rhythmically addictive brutality. Unnecessary buildup is avoided like the plague. The more the album rages, the more your biceps grow. "Synchronized" and "Sworn to Repay" continue the assault in line with the band's formula of fast blast sections that suddenly collapse into slow, smothering slams, while properly juggling with the momentum. 

The album's middle section features Acranius at their most blunt, riding a relentless measured beating with the pounding, repetitive riff on "Dogma". A locked-in-one track that produces some of Whiteout's heaviest moments, as follower "Forced Dread" pushes the tempo further and strongly emphasizes how all these tracks are tailor-made for concert chaos. "A Vow Unspoken" and "Counterlife" are two of the fuller tracks of the record, occasionally tickling the otherwise standard tempo and pull back the intensity a couple of times, just so the next groove slaps harder. Towards Whiteout's end is where the band leans even more into their deathcore self (hey, roll back and feel the breakdown on "Dogma" again though) with "Waste of Life" and "Convoi", these guys really are engineers of festival devastation.

The band has kept refining its sound to a razor edge, being on their best behavior while inside their comfort zone. Sometimes, what use is to experiment when the machine operates so well within the boundaries, so if you're looking for unpredictable high jinks, this tractor is not for you. Overly aggressive, massive in production and with vehement mentality, Acranius' energy radiates. Whiteout delivers, as long as you know what to expect from it

Release: March 6th, 2026 | Blood Blast Distribution
Rating: 4 out of 5

 

Enmity - Illuminations of Vile Engorgement (2005) Review

Whoever sets on a path to discover the sickest kind of extreme music that has ever been recorded, sooner or later will come across Enmity’s debut and only album, Illuminations of Vile Engorgement. Released in 2005 through Permeated Records, the album has accrued a reputation as much for its divisive sound as for the discourse it sparks about the limits of brutal death metal, and how it forcibly melds absurdity with brutality while ignoring all expectations. The band has little interest in conventional structure, butchering the notion of accessibility by plunging headlong into a torrent of blast assaults, guttural chaos and relentless slam death noise. Forget pretty descriptions like memorable riff progressions, discernible melodies, technical prowess, as all that’s musical is sacrificed in the pit of barbarism and repulsion.  

The guitars are tuned so low and mixed so murkily; they basically blur into an amorphous, impenetrable wall of sound. Guitar lines are pounding, abrasive and unrepentant, while drums throb with literally non-stop blast beats, producing an effect so visceral and overwhelming, that you’ll probably have a physical response to it. Track titles are right up there when it comes to the ugliest brutal death metal filth, while the gurgling, intentionally grotesque guttural vocals just double down on the whole element of distortion. I would freely admit it’s impossible to tell one track from the next, yet the total of 33 minutes of this experiment, somehow needs to be listened just to see how a band reaching sounds like. It’s unclear whether Enmity did this deliberately or not, but they orchestrated the conditions for the perfect storm inside extreme metal fandom just with this one album. 

Wildly divergent reactions have been drawn over the years about Illuminations of Vile Engorgement, and the audience will never come to an agreement about it. For some, a misguided experiment that lacks quality and direction, standing as a bizarre outlier in brutal death metal that overstretched itself to complete incoherence. To others, a sonic anti-thesis, dismantling the tolerance of even the most durable listeners with its ceaseless propulsion. To me, just the vastness of different opinions is what stands out here, and how chaotic the record actually is – repetitive and uninviting. Pushing itself to such a ludicrous edge, there’s a performative audacity in Enmity’s approach that’s at least acknowledgeable. It’s not going to be in my death metal favorites any time soon, but I somehow get both why people strongly hate or strongly worship it. 

I’m not going to mention any specific track or moment, except for the outro “Severe Lacerations”, which is fully in acoustic guitars and quite virtuosic to my ears. And the only reason I’m mentioning it is to maybe confuse you even more, in case you read the vivid breakdown of the rest of the record done in the paragraphs above. In the end, Illuminations of Vile Engorgement refuses to moderate itself (except from the end), it’s polarizing and impossible to digest or be processed logically. There’s a series of works of this kind that do take the extra mile, and this clearly is one of them.

Condemned - Desecrate the Vile (2007) Review

Right from the wretched womb that gave birth to Disgorge (one of the tightest brutal death metal bands of all time), released just a couple of weeks before the debut of Cephalotripsy (one of the filthiest brutal death metal records of all time), and sharing members from both aforementioned monstrosities, Condemned's debut Desecrate the Vile was released in 2007 through Lacerated Enemy Records with a clear goal to be the most accessible album you'll come across.

If you've been around the blocks of this blog, I shall not continue. I have mixed feelings for both Realms of the Ungodly (2011) and Desecrate the Vile when the maniac side of my brain takes over, but when in the mood for thick, brutal as hell extremity, then riffs of a band like this stomp on the heart like the proverbial ton of bricks. 

The album embodies everything the genre’s devotees demand. From subterranean gutturals to slam-laden riffing, it keeps the sense of suffocation constant and has a production so dense, you'll feel like swimming in honey is easier. It's their right to paraphrase legends:

"You merely adopted the slam, I was born in it, molded by it".

- Angel Ochoa

I'm sort of missing a bass sound in this mayhem, yet it's definitely there, as one can notice from the first seconds of the album's highlight "Chapter of Defilement". 

Most of the tracks are fairly short (1 - 3 minutes), monotonous, borderline underdeveloped but with primal purpose, and then you have an 11 minute composition, "Amputated Repugnance" as closure. Worry not, as it's largely distorted, post-apocalyptic noise / dark ambient creepiness from the third minute onward, as if you're playing a video game and navigate through a barren wasteland with creatures of unknown origins hunting down on you.

Otherwise, Desecrate the Vile would be 20 minutes long instead of half an hour, and that would then make it a masterpiece!

No epitaph to be found

---

 

Recorded in July 2006 at RedCrosby Studios Fallbrook, CA.
Mastered at Imperial Mastering, Pacheco, California, USA.
Produced by Jeremy Craw and Condemned.

Dripping - Disintegration of Thought Patterns (2002)

On their official website, Internal Bleeding claim they invented the term "slam" as a subcategory of death metal as early as 1993. That's quite some time before the arguably first pure slamming brutal death metal album was released, which is Devourment's debut Molesting the Decapitated in 1999. 

Voracious Contempt by Internal Bleeding had been released four years prior to that and definitely had some elements, yet it was with the latter that this whole idea got the popularity that it has. Of course, there was the Psychopathic Embryotomy demo by Afterbirth in 1994 (who have since reformed for the last ten years and are now doing fine things), the first Dehumanized albums, Pyrexia's influential Sermon of Mockery already out in 1993 as well as the Japanese Vomit Remnants, all active around the same time in the mid / late 90's.

If you're thinking this is just caveman, mindless death metal, like the younger brother of the family who's evidently a bit behind, you're right. That's most of slam brutal death today, and almost was like that from the beginning, by no means at the same level as full on old school death, or brutal death of the 00's. 

Right at that time, a really particular band made its appearance, and nobody noticed. As Cadaverment, they were active from 1999 - 2000 and then put out a mini-release as Dripping in 2001, named The Lost Archives of Channeling Expeditions Through the Cosmos EP, with a clear concept about space and science fiction. Already things are quite unusual.

The EP was quite noisy and pretty crazy in content, as tempos change constantly in dusty sound that's hard to follow and there's numerous sound usage selections that will make you, wonder. Diary of an ancient astronaut? Skydiving out of the hemisphere? The second track "Interlude of Astrophysics" has some rap beats in there, and the whole thing sounds like madness. Dripping were tripping.

In 2002, we get served the debut (full title: Disintegration of Thought Patterns During a Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss), which is a continuation of the smashed EP from the previous year, but they have by now completely let go of any sort of reason. Elements of slam brutal death are in the forefront, but the record is so unpredictable and experimental, that this lightning in a bottle case feels surreal that such innovation can fit in such a dull sub-subgenre.

Every time you listen to this, something new comes up. Gargantuan grooves, battered electronic passages, brutally filthy production, hip hop to slam and back within seconds, unheard of signatures, preludes with acoustic guitars at the levels of Dissection, sudden piano / female opera singing, all maniacally glued together in what's either a random mess, or a masterpiece. I go with the latter.

Dripping's Disintegration of Thought Patterns is one of the most unique pieces of extreme metal I have ever heard, one that makes you change the way you see the genres it touches. Much like Sigh's early works or the EP / full length of Infester, the initial listen is an once in a lifetime experience. How was it when you first listened to Intellect Made Us Blind?

It seems the band is active since last year. Could that mean they're recording new stuff or is it just to play gigs around? After Brodequin's return earlier in the year, hidden hellspawns from the past decades come back with a vengeance. One at a time.

Condemned - Realms of the Ungodly (2011) Review

I was a lot more into that stuff back in 2010 - 2011, and then Realms of the Ungodly was one of my more frequent listens weekly, which I remember I preferred a lot to their debut too. 

 

The sound is thick but not super polished and generally, it's quite heavy and dark album compared to average gory / slam brutal death metal. It goes a bit in the direction of early Disgorge thematically, but the music is significantly less effective compared to the other San Diego giants. 

 

Artwork and titles are fantastic, it wouldn't hurt for it to be a bit faster sometimes, but the necessary brutality and seriousness is maintained throughout. 

 

Compared to other brutal death metal bands at the time, I would draw some slight references towards maybe Disentomb of the same era. The guitars and vocals are decent enough for me, but the non-existent band is a problem and could add some magnitude to this if it was present. 

 

Any time bands like that go for a bit more hateful lyrics rather than just pure gore, I am happy. However, Condemned today sound a bit of a letdown to me, thinking what this could have been. 

 

My younger self would not agree, but I still wouldn't bash and discard the record. There's definitely a lot worse out there. [3 out of 5 - Good]

San Diego, California, US | Unique Leader Records

Website | Listen

Track listing:

1. Eirgmos.. Aidios...
2. Ere the Dark Sovereign
3. Baptismal Incineration upon Simonists
4. Catharsis of Human Impurity
5. Embodied in Elms of Eternal Misery
6. Realms of the Ungodly
7. Forged Within Lecherous Offerings
8. The Divine Order of Babylon
9. Manipulated for Servitude
10. Submerged unto Phlegethon

Total runtime | 00:32:54

Brodequin - Festival of Death (2001) Review

Since a new Brodequin album has been announced, which already may be one of the happiest pieces of news of the year, we gladly dive back to their back catalog of excruciatingly brutal early 00’s albums. 

While I think nothing can beat Instruments of Torture for me, as it has the catchiest and filthiest tracks, they kept ripping and banging for all their albums, including the follow-up Festival of Death in 2001. 

When I think of the peak of brutal death metal, I think of an era up to 2005, and bands like Brodequin, Disgorge, Mortician, Pyaemia and so forth. This is the stuff that is sincerely heavy, without being ridiculous or pretentious, or even abusing slams / grooves / overplayed hardcore with gutturals. 

Ugliness is the word of the day, and Festival of Death is for the ears that have the capability to acquire it. 

Definitely one of the most intense records I have ever listened to, just a thick, big, 700 kg bear mauling your face. Festival of Death straightens the soul. Hopefully the new one is as sick. Listen to their other stuff too. [4.5 out of 5 - Brilliant]

Knoxville, Tennessee, US | Unmatched Brutality Records

Website | Listen

Track listing:

1. Mazzatello

2. Judas Cradle

3. Trial by Ordeal

4. Torches of Nero

5. Vivum Excoriari

6. Lake of the Dead

7. Blood of the Martyr

8. Gilles De Rais

9. Flow of Maggots

10. Bronze Bowl

11. Auto De Fa

Total runtime | 00:30:53

Deeds of Flesh - Trading Pieces

Before the modern day studio effect pollution, this is how death metal albums used to sound like. Debut by now legends Deeds of Flesh came out as organic and as thick as they could make it, in about the middle of the best decade ever. 

All instruments sound perfectly organic, it's quite technical, the production is perfect and the drums are way above average. Simple and ugly lyrics throughout, and lot's of tempo changes as well as great guitar riffs.

Good first step for the band, especially after an equally juicy EP a year earlier, Gradually Melted. Trading Pieces can be there for all your death metal cravings. [4/5 - Excellent]

Tracklist:

1. Carnivorous Ways

2. Born Then Torn Apart

3. Trading Pieces

4. Hunting Humans

5. Impious Offerings

6. Acid Troops

7. Deeds of Flesh

8. Erected on Stakes

9. Chunks in the Shower

10. Blasted

11. Outro

Autumn 1996, Repulse Records

Listen

Devangelic - Xul (2023) Review

There is overpopulation in every extreme metal subgenre today, which makes it an even bigger relief to find a solid band among the tons of new music one can go through during each year. Such quality band is Devangelic from Rome, Italy, who have started their activities in 2012 and have offered a handful of highly enjoyable records in the brutal death metal territory, as it was executed by its founders 25 years ago. The band’s debut Resurrection Denied in 2014 had a strong blasphemous character, but since then they have switched to a more occult lyrical theme around Sumerian legends and mythology, which continues on the latest album, Xul. 

Devangelic draw arrows from the same quiver like they have done so far and they aim well, as this new work thrives upon compact heaviness and intimidating brutality. It is fairly technical in terms of musicianship, throwing multiple either perplexed, or straightforward groovy riffs, the solos are frequent and the tempos change often, making Xul complicated enough to show the merit of the band, but pleasing to follow without your head exploding. 

The production is less crystal clear than what it was on the previous record Ersetu in 2020 and this time, the band aims to feel a bit less modern than before, giving out a strong Disgorge worship here, adding enough samples and extra elements that would bring Nile in mind, or at least a brutal death metal version of them. I like this sound transition a lot, because it grants Xul a very potent presence, which is supported by the furious material it contains and presents an album almost of a different time, solid through and through, and amazingly barbarous. 

Vocals are almost solely limited to deep growling, with a few high pitched screams here and there, and sometimes it’s possible to follow the lyrics, but they perfectly fit the music on Xul altogether. Another excellent aspect is the drum work, which keeps up to whatever the guitars throw wonderfully, it maintains a healthy amount of blast beats and is varied enough throughout the record without showing off, but more like serving the composition itself. 

There is an abundance of parts at frenetic speed and some slower, almost breakdown-like intersections, while Devangelic often employ unusual time signatures as is characteristic in brutal death metal, all executed accurately. Xul reaches the higher steps of the ladder for this year’s competition in the genre, and is to me, their most complete work to date.

Out on April 7th, 2023 | Willowtip Records

DAMAGE: 4/5 [Excellent]

Pit Lord - Gallery of Skewered Swine (2022) Review

Man, this blows hard. The colossal amount of sub-par extreme metal bands coming and going the last two decades is difficult to avoid, yet most of the times it is wiser to ignore than to indulge. For once, and with such a grand cover art, I slightly had some hope for the second Pit Lord album, a parody death metal band focusing on the subject of grilling meat and barbeques, and as much as I appreciate this craft, the band is ridiculous at best. While not being a person pre-determined against groups with humorous lyrics (even if there is good ground to be), I always take the musical content into account above all, and Gallery of Skewered Swine is one of the most poorly made, generic and weakest death metal albums I have heard this year. Its production is a complete failure, as the guitars completely lack any kind of impact in their sound, something that could have saved them from the fact that they haven't written not even one riff worth listening to in the whole album. The vocals feel forced and frail too, and the drum machine sounds as good as the sound of typing on a keyboard. Pit Lord go for slam / brutal death metal grooves really often but the structure of the tracks is so flat and so predictable, in a completely unoriginal and deficient record that has only two nice points: the cover and some funny samples about grilling. An attempt of the classic word altering joke title of "Sons of a Northern Breakfast" just makes the whole situation more embarrassing, because at least when e.g. Cannabis Corpse do it, they are also capable of writing some actual music to support it. There's nothing worth it in this album and most of death metal you will hear is better than it, so don't even consider investing the time. This genre has much better artists with substantial vision and considerable musicianship for you to enjoy, instead of toying with material way below mediocrity. [1/5 - Really poor]

Mortician - Chainsaw Dismemberment (1999) Review

This must be one of the most straightforward bands ever, and can serve as a great introduction to the general approach that is followed in the genre of goregrind. I wouldn't claim Mortician is a brutal death metal band, and definitely not grindcore, as the way their albums are constructed is simply based on the most down-tuned, often ultra slow, guitar riffs, dressed in thick distortion, growls as cavernous as possible and a flood of movie samples, in this case horror movies. Most of the tracks are quite short in duration (28 pieces, 49 minutes total length) and sometimes the samples are longer than the music itself, which hardly changes at any moment. A noisy broken-computer-cable sound you'll listen here is actually the bass, and the grooves in the record don't even try to be attractive, yet Mortician try to be as disgusting as possible but with a subtle sense of artistry and not as explicit or gory as other goregrind bands have dared to appear at times. Chainsaw Dismemberment doesn't aim for much, it skips most aspects of music but puts all its boost on one: the brutality. It's not necessarily the heaviest record you will listen and definitely not a technical one, yet the constant pummelling of noisy instruments and snoring bear vocals, along with classic horror movie passages, a flawless drum machine because who has time for drums, an amazing cover art, somehow makes listening to Mortician low-key addictive. In a world of extraordinary, flashy metal artists, this band doesn't even pretend to change and possibly is one of the perpetrators of a style that proves to be stubborn and pushing the extreme, yet let me say this: putting together as much explicit material as possible for the sake of it, doesn't make you good. Mortician don't do that, and instead pick a loving topic as they're surely cinema geeks, they pack up the dirtiest, most monotonous wall of noise and throw it all at your face, but it still doesn't feel too much to handle. [3/5 - Good]

Movie samples used in the record: When A Stranger Calls, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Silent Night, Bloody Night, I Drink Your Blood, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Zombi 2, Bloodeaters, The Crazies, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Wolfen, Friday the 13th Parth 2, Slaughterhouse, Rats: Night of Terror, Inferno, Phantasm II

Cenotaph - Precognition to Eradicate (2021) Review

Genre: Brutal Death Metal

Location: Turkey

Label: Coyote Records / New Standard Elite / Tentacles Industries

Listen: Bandcamp

Website: Facebook

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As one of the oldest and steadiest bands in the brutal death metal scene, Turkey’s Cenotaph have a long back-catalog of several classic releases, some more graphic than others. Despite the line-up turmoil that the group has undergone, it has been the case that there is a new release every 3 – 4 years, except the 7 year gap between 2010’s Putrescent Infectious Rabidity and 2017’s Perverse Dehumanized Dysfunctions.

Now, Precognition to Eradicate is mercilessly violent. Its production wouldn’t be characterized as totally polished, compared to other like-minded, modern bands, yet the record’s bulldozing sound exerts absolute domination. Living up to the band’s history, remarkable levels of brutality are achieved, while maintaining distinct technicality and deep, below-the-earth, growling throughout the whole album. Tempos constantly change, the maniacal guitar shredding focuses on the wall of heaviness instead of displaying prowess, there are moments of some more clear bass tapping while the drumming execution is plain savagery. The outcome of Precognition to Eradicate is fully served by its semi-dusty production, and Cenotaph show what it means to be a truly heavy band with top-notch musicianship.  

Listening to tracks like “Isolation Turned Into Cannibalism”, the self-titled track or “Anomalous Necrotic Breed”, the masterful combination of hard-hitting fast parts and short-termed, not overused grooves, as well as excellent usage of all the instruments involves, establishes how focused Cenotaph are with this release. A slower, almost doomy section comes towards the ending of the fifth track, “Recombinant Extraterrestrial New Form”, which is also met in the record’s final track “Into the Septic Molecular New Form”, two moments when Cenotaph dare to step into more abstract territories, compared to their known pummeling brutal death metal core.

With its delicate artwork (done by Delik Saike), Precognition to Eradicate proved to be more convincing than the last two efforts of the band and is a highlight for this year’s death metal release wagon.

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Tracklist:

1. Anti-Pathogenic Morbid Incubation  

2. Progeny of Embryonic Congenital Malformations

3. Anomalous Necrotic Breed

4. Virus Induced Dehumanization 

5. Recombinant Extraterrestrial New Form 

6. Isolation Turned into Cannibalism 

7. Precognition to Eradicate

8. Pandemic Bacterial Reverse Mutation 

9. Into the Septic Molecular New Form

 

Damage: 3.5/5 [Excellent]

Bullet Ratings #2

• Azaxul – The Saints Impaled [6.0]
• Birth Of Depravity - From Obscure Domains [6.25]
• Blaze Of Sorrow – Astri [5.0]
• Father Befouled – Desolate Gods [7.5]
• Goatwhore - Vengeful Ascension [4.0]
• Hades Rising – Hades Rising [7.0]
• Maim - Ornaments of Severity [4.5]
• Neige et Noirceur – Verglapolis [5.0]
• Nyctophilia - Dwelling In The Fullmoon Light [5.5]
• Ofermod – Sol Nox [6.25]
• Rebirth of Nefast – Tabernaculum [6.5]
• Solbrud – Vemod [5.5]
• Svarti Loghin - Mörk Energi [4.0]
• Svartsyn – In Death [8.5]
• Thy Legion – World Stigmata [0.5] /fuckingshit/

Regurgitate Life - Obliteration of the Self

Origin: UK

Year: 2017

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Member of the World Misleading Covers Party.

A great record with unexpected turns.

Repudilation - Purging of Impurity (Demo, 1996)

Album | Purging of Impurity [Demo]
Country | United States
Genre | Brutal Death Metal
Label | Numb Cum

| Fall of oppression |

Repudilation were formed in 1994 as a brutal death metal outfit, back when the genre had not completely taken form. Still, their first and only demo Purging of Impurity in 1996 was close to it, at least musically, since the band didn't adopt the pure fun gore subjects of the later bands. Repudilation also released a split and a compilation before splitting up, which makes this an important part of their small discography.

This demo includes four tracks, all of them lasting around three or four minutes. The sound is quite noisy but not completely damaged so that it's unbearable, having a dirty production and a couple of samples to keep the entertainment going. The guitars have a thick catuous sound that creates the first layer of the recording and the drums go on nicely and accurately, with frequent blasts and fast parts.

A main characteristic of the demo is the gargling, guttural vocals of Rich Turnbull, which hardly even go into the typical growling moment. His singing is deep, grunting for the most part, making his style clear brutal death metal and of course indistinguishable. The performance is cool throughout the demo and has what is needed to support a groovy old school / brutal death compositional arrangemeny like this.

Since I have not found any lyrics available, from what I get through the various titles, the band revolved around decay, death of humanity and general macabre subjects. That fits fine to the death metal scene of it's time and the splatter lyrics / covers are amiss, as in the rest of brutal death. Yet, I think the black & white cover art of Purging of Impurity, along with the deep red letter, is great awesomeness.

During these fourteen minutes, I heard nothing but legit brutal death metal, budget limited to demo standards only, with an awesome "Dance motherfucker, dance" sample at the beginning of the last song. Lot's of slam elements exist in here, and judging from the chronology it's certainly one of the first records as well. As I'm not a die hard fan myself, I think it has it's stench and quality, so this is indeed a good demo.

DAMAGE: 7.75/10

Ingested - The Surreption (2011)

Album | The Surreption
Country | United Kingdom
Genre | Brutal Death Metal / Deathcore
Label | Siege of Amida Records

| Your flesh is my canvas |

Once starting as a pure, polished brutal death metal / deathcore band, Ingested came into this world with a split in 2007 but most notably their 2009 full length, Surpassing the Boundaries of Human Suffering. Mainly consisting of catchy slam riffs, blast beats and various growls, it's concept was into gore, necrophilia, rape and with a great cover like that, I would surely fit my BDM preferences.

The band released their second full length The Surreption in 2011 and while the music has remained close to the debut, the attitude of the band had generally changed a bit. This record revolves around more generic death and vengeance issues, it has a "nicer" cover, Martyr Defiled and Despised Icon members doing guest vocals in a couple of songs, so the band has moved into something more core than death metal, as it seems.

The production of the record is the same as the debut full length, equally hammering and stomping groovy riffs down your throat, not missing the constantly fast paced drumming. The skills of the band in terms of composition and song writing has not changed very much, so it's possible that if you enjoyed the first record musically, this will do as well.

Turning into something more accessible lyrically and aesthetically is not to be judged, since Ingested at least have their own ideas to present their own way, combining brutal death metal with catchy breakdowns. Now, if you happen to be in a gig they play and see kids hardcore dancing, don't freak out.

DAMAGE: 7.5/10

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Mass Infection - For I Am Genocide (2014) Review

Album | For I Am Genocide
Country | Greece
Genre | Brutal Death Metal
Label | Comatose Music

| Nihilism reigns |

I have waited too long for the new album of this band, as there were news about it for more than a year now, with the crushing art of George Prasinis released early enough to make it even harder to wait. The third Mass Infection record comes five years after The Age of Recreation in 2009, which was truly a remarkable example of solid modern / brutal death metal and it's title is For I Am Genocide, because that's what it is. It's steady nature of brutality and ear violating attitude certainly delivers one more time.

The sound of For I Am Genocide is loud and clear. Enough attention is given to the vocals, which play an Immolation-type role to the tracks, keeping their deep growling tones exactly into place and above all in each an every second featuring them. The instruments are also quite polished, to the levels of any death metal band of our time and is characterized by a like-minded production as well, maximizing the volume no matter what. Mass Infection have had good sound in their albums before and nothing more or less was expected now.

In case it happens to be one of the most popular death metal bands coming from Greece, they honor their reputation with this hammering record. All the compositions have plenty of fierce riffs and fast-paced blast beats, taking the art of shredding a bit further than what we were used of them doing. They come with faster, well worked and technical parts this time, just to add to the overall power of their abilities, leaning towards the nowadays American scene and not that much of the Swedish / European old-school patterns.

For I Am Genocide lasts thirty five minutes and contains nine tracks of two to four minute tracks, except the last "The Genocide Revealed" which goes over six. There is enough variety in the songs so that it doesn't get repetitive, even though they maintain some similar ideas expanded from a different angle each time. I don't see why these guys can reach less greatness of glorious death metal bands we all know, as their new album is more than legit for the genre and not only. Once again, Mass Infection are impressive. My wait was not in vein.

DAMAGE: 8.5/10

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Aborted Fetus - Private Judgement Day (2014) Review

Album | Private Judgement Day
Country | Russia
Genre | Brutal Death Metal
Label | Comatose Music

I found out about Aborted Fetus from an old forum I once frequently visited in a random conversation about metal genres, back then I was into such bands mainly because of the titles and the artwork, more than the music itself. It is true that I prefer other Russian bands when it comes to brutal death metal, like Abominable Putridity and Katalepsy, but these guys also come to mind now and then. Therefore, I was looking forward to listening to this album, even though one knows what to expect from it, especially when one has heard a band's previous material.

As most of the bands alike, Aborted Fetus are all but slams, groovy riffs, blast beats and guttural vocals. Coming with a delicious and artistic cover, which represents the usual chaotic gore apocalypse we know, it's title and song titles are not extremely disgusting this time, compared to some of their past namings (if you can't stand these ones, don't go anywhere deeper into brutal death, really). Of course, there are "Fuck in the Pesthole" and "Malignant Pregnancy" which suggest of something, but the average title choices are ok. In fact, Private Judgement Day could be any band's album title. Even though most bands go as gross as possible, Aborted Fetus keep it close and stick to their brutal music.

Fans of the band and the genre are probably going to dig this hard, because of the same reasons they enjoy that style. Aborted Fetus know how to hammer tasty grooves in your face and it's heavy as it needs to be, at it's comfortable and cozy DR4 production, the most common outcome of the whole genre. For that, the production is pretty jammed but nobody would even care to notice. Private Judgement Day has a relatively riotous sound, without being the unbearable kind of noise necessarily, similar to their previous full length Goresoaked Clinical Accidents, and slightly worse than Fatal Dogmatic Damage.

Musically, the band is just pure brutal death metal. There are a couple of screaming / horror samples in various songs, as in the very beginning of the record with "Savage Dominance", and also in "Private Judgement Day", "Brown Totem" and "Morning Inferno". Such samples have always appealed to me a lot, sometimes more than the rest of the songs, and I expect to hear one or two in every record like that I get. The drums go quite fast and repetitively throw several combined hits, while the guitar work uses the absolute basic characteristics of the genre to build compositions. The vocal range includes guttural, growls and often pig squeels. Don't expect to understand the lyrics, if there are any.

Private Judgement Day contains twenty five minutes of what Aborted Fetus do best and it's not expanding anywhere further that, to be sincere. It would be an enjoyable listen and a really good album for die hard fans, or people who can keep up with just brutality in their music. I like my brutal death from time to time but I consider it somewhat inferior to actual straightforward death metal, so an average or even a considered good band won't move the earth at all over here. Still, it's a legit album as a whole, quite attractive to a certain kind of fans.

DAMAGE: 6.5/10

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Abated Mass of Flesh - The Anatomy of Impurity (EP, 2013) Review

September 3rd, 2013
Rottweiler Records

Abated Mass of Flesh come from Tennessee, US and they are a part of the new wave of brutal death metal, which seems to be in fashion lately. They don't have much of a discography yet and when I listened to their debut EP back in 2011 (one that I had gotten along with the 80.000 Dead EP) I couldn't really get into it, but I did not hate it either, it was a neat, noisy record. Two years later, they release two more EP and one of them is this, which is just wrong to my eyes.

The fans of BDM are almost immune to the flaws of the genre and will jamm on anything you give them, as long as it has guttural, eructating vocals and blast beats, and that's the only way to enjoy this. The songs here are very similar to each other and there is nothing uncommon in them to be any special, except the shredding two second intro in "My Cross To Claim" or in the middle of "Deadland", which again, is often used in such occassions. In general, they sound like the new era of Pathology, with a slightly dirtier production and a worse drummer. I mean, it sounds like there are four guys hitting random notes back there. The high hats are used too often and they are loud enough to toss everything else on the side, making the process of listening somehow staggering.

The vocal work is limited to the regular brutal death singing with some highs and you can listen to a few pig squeels in some moments, but that's about it, naturally. There is a bass drop on every corner of this record, as if it was used to fill the musical gaps and it does, in it's own way. At least they avoided the hardcore breakdowns. There is a sense of randomness to the compositional structure, as if they connected two different songs into one, or fused ideas in a goalless way. The  mini album closes with an instrumental track with a preaching sample about how important the love of God is, and that brings me to my last point, the lyrics. It is a christian band and I can't help but laugh about the content, Give me strength o, Lord.

To sum up, I think "The Anatomy of Impurity" targets it's audience to those who like religious content in their music, as well as the fans of brutal death metal, but it might seem repulsive to anyone outside. Apart from that, it is rather nonchalant on it's own and there are definitely better things in that scene for you to check out.

DAMAGE: 3.0/10

Ingested - Surpassing The Boundaries Of Human Suffering (2009)

Ingested "Surpassing The Boundaries Of Human Suffering"

2011, Siege Of Amida Records

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I think the cover art for this album is elegant enough for this blog. And im glad. I love this fact with brutal death metal bands, they usually have extra detailed gore cover albums done with extreme talent and precision, and when you start listening you feel like they recorded it with broken tape players.

Thats not what happens here though, the music is as extreme as the cover, awesome band that has released awesome albums, i don't care if they label it under the deathcore genre or anything, they have some good ideas for brutal death metal and when they make songs out of them, im happy. This debut release is a clear death metal album, the second one has more deathcore influences, but its still pleasant to listen to. Its one of the bands that im never bored to listen, the heaviness just feels good inside.

Don't expect the noisy squeals or the shitty drums of average BDM albums, they have a solid production (Abominable Putridity & Pathology) and the album lasts over 20-25 minutes, again unlike other albums of the genre.