Blastbeat Review: Haiduk, Husk, and OFF!

I'm in the thick of exams season over here, but who needs studying when you've got shit to review?

HAIDUK - SPELLBOOK

Right from the get-go, Spellbook captivates me. It starts off firing on all cylinders, and doesn't stop or tone down until the last note abruptly brings this monster to a halt. Haiduk (or The Haiduks according to iTunes) shreds out some Behemoth-esque blackened death metal, all written and performed by vocalist-guitarist Luka Milojika. The drums, despite being programmed are produced really well, and despite the speed of Milojika's work, don't suffer from sounding too fake a la Agrophobic Nosebleed. There are a couple instances of mediocre drum sounds (usually cymbals when played fast), but for the most part, everything sounds great. This is a must-listen for anybody who digs blisteringly fast extreme music. The songs themselves are over quicker than you can blink, the longest clocking in at just over four minutes, and the shortest coming in at just over two.

Also, Haiduk is Canadian! I love hearing great bands come from the Canadian extreme metal scene. It just tickles my pickle to see bands from the Great White North contribute to the international underground metal scene. You can check out Haiduk on Facebook, and hear some songs of his on YouTube. Overall Score: 3.5/5

HUSK - HYMNS

Husk is a new addition to the giant list of noisy, sludgey hardcore bands that have been cropping up recently. The guitars and bass are heavy as fuck, and everything either goes a snail's pace with crushing riffs, or shoots off at terminal velocity, zig-zagging its way around like a Converge riff. The one thing Hymns has going for it that separates it from the masses of Code Orange Kidses and Loma Prietas out there is the old school black metal-esque vocals shrieked throughout.

I honestly love noisy, sludgey, heavy as hell hardcore and Converge worship, but Husk doesn't really give me any great reasons to listen to them instead of just tossing on some Secret or Botch. I'm interested to see where Husk will go, but unless they start stepping up their game, they'll soon lose my ear. Check 'em out on Facebook and Bandcamp. Hymns is out April 10th. on Art As Catharsis Records. Score: 2.5/5

OFF! - WASTED YEARS

OFF! recently got my attention when I heard their debut First Four EPs, where they dished out SoCal hardcore punk like it's 1982 again. Keith Morris (of Black Flag and Circle Jerks fame) is as pissed as ever, and he's got the music to back it. Wasted Years was recorded on tape and while it has that awesome rawness to it, it still sounds great. It sounds like 80's hardcore in 2014, and I love it. I'd put on anything OFF! have released over Wild in the Streets or Group Sex any day. Don't get me wrong, those are both great albums and I love Keith Morris jams old or new, but to hear hardcore veterans with a modern edge is something I've been hoping for for a long time.

Wasted Years dishes out straight and to the point tracks, with all but one running under two minutes. To quote another review: They rock. They're energetic. Keith Morris is angry. Find OFF! on Facebook, and stream Wasted Years on the New York Times (!?) site. Score: 4/5

That's all for now, folks!

-DG

Blastbeat Reviews: Hammerdrone, Maze of Terror

Usual spiel: school's been eating up all my time, I've promised a bunch of reviews, so here are some quick ones for you. 

HAMMERDRONE - CLONE OF EUROPA

Y'all remember Hammerdrone, right? Those Canadian boys riffing out some good old fashioned death metal with heavy melodeath and blackened death influences? Well, they're back with a new full length to tear your faces off. These guys still rock their heavy Behemoth and Goatwhore influences from before, but on Clone of Europa they're bringing in some Gothenburg melodic death metal sounds into the fray as well.

In pretty much every way, Clone of Europa is a giant step ahead of A Demon Rising. The musicianship is tighter, the production is heavy as fuck, and the songs flow better, showing some serious soundscaping and atmosphere building abilities on the band's part. If you're into death metal or melodic death metal at all, I can't recommend Clone of Europa enough. Check it out on Bandcamp here, and visit them on the Facetubes here. Overall Score: 4/5.

MAZE OF TERROR - SKULL CRUSHER EP

Maze of Terror hail from Lima, Peru and play thrash fucking metal. No, not thrash metal. Thrash. Fucking. Metal. These guys are relatively new on the scene having only formed in 2011, but they're firing on all cylinders on their first release. They've got their own style of old school Bay Area thrash mixed with the neo-thrash movement started with bands like Toxic Holocaust and Warbringer, with just a hint of European thrash sprinkled on top. The result is some heavy, fast, and vicious thrash metal that can appease any headbanger. Skull Crusher reminds me heavily of Needs More Noise Gate favorites Termination Force and Zafakon, and as I wrote that sentence all I can think about about is how freaking wicked it would be to have a Termination Force, Zafakon and Maze of Terror tour, but I digress. Maze of Terror kicks all kinds of ass, and you should listen to Skull Crusher right now. You can check them out on Facebook, and listen to some of this EP on Youtube. Score 4/5

That's all for now, folks!

-DG

Blastbeat Reviews: Behemoth, Gridlink, MEASURE X UP

Here are some quick reviews for some awesome releases, cause I haven't posted anything since forever. Ludicrous speed, go!

BEHEMOTH - THE SATANIST

After punching his leukemia in the dick, Nergal regrouped with his blaspheming bandmates Inferno and Orion to craft one hell of a "reunion album", Yeah, yeah, I know, Behemoth never actually broke up, but whatever, I don't care.

The Satanist is Behemoth reconstructed out of all the great parts of their different musical eras. It isn't the outrageous speed-for-speed's-sake Behemoth of Evangelion or Demigod, but it isn't the mediocre (read: pretty shitty) black metal Behemoth of yore. This is a blend of technical horsepower, bleak and dark atmosphere, and most importantly, competent songwriting. Nergal and the boys stepped back on the wankery, stepped up their black metal soundscaping, and made sure that every note, beat, word, and fill on this album was exactly where it was supposed to go, and nowhere else. This Behemoth has some restraint, and I like it. Score: 3.5/5

GRIDLINK - LONGHENA

Gridlink have quickly shot up through the ranks of my favorite grindcore bands, notably for their hyper-speed playing, outrageous technical chops, and consistent quality of musical output, even if everything they've ever recorded fits into less than an hour's worth of time (Hey, it worked for Minor Threat).

Longhena sets the bar to an impossibly high level for any band that plays this strain of grindcore. Chang's banshee vocals, Matsubara's rhythm playing that somehow fits under the category of "shred guitar" (not to mention his actual lead playing), Fajardo's accompanying drumming, the string sections, the interlude track, holy shit people, everything fits so nicely together that I honestly cannot find a weak point to this album. It even comes with a set of "karaoke versions" of the tracks for those of you who hate Jon Chang.

This album should be the soundtrack to the hardest video game bosses ever (I'm looking at you, Sephiroth from Kingdom Hearts), because once this shit gets going, you notice how sweaty you've become even though you haven't budged an inch, and that whatever you were previously doing, you're now doing with the intensity and ferocity of a New Jersey guido grinding on an orange chick with bolted on tits. Score: 5/5

MEASURE X UP - DEMO 2014

You guys remember MEASURE X UP from my last Blastbeat Review, don't you? This Halifax straightedge hardcore band's appropriately titled Demo 2014 is more of the same of last year's equally appropriately titled Demo 2013. These dudes dish out hardcore the way it's supposed to be, a la Minor Threat and Youth of Today. I find that in this new demo, everything's been beefed up. Production is heavier, the vocals seem more powerful, and everything sounds crushing and purposeful. Every d-beat hits you right in the face and every word hangs out in your head, even well after the demo's less than 7 minute run time. This is just as good as their last demo, and I'm pumped to hear anything else these guys churn out in the future. Listen to it here and download it for free! Score: 4/5

That's all for now folks, hopefully I can put up some more reviews for you guys soon!

-DG

Blastbeat Reviews: Gore Edition! Carcass, Exhumed, Basement Torture Killings

More quick reviews because I'm a lazy asshole. This time around we're taking a crack at Carcass' comeback album, Exhumed's follow-up to 2010 comeback, All Guts, No Glory and Basement Torture Killings' just-a-few-days-short-of-a-2013-debut-release The Second Cumming. Crass, I know.

CARCASS - SURGICAL STEEL

I've been hyping this album like mad since the teaser dropped a couple weeks ago, and the wicked jam "Captive Bolt Pistol" dropped a week later, but deep down, I was so scared that the single was going to be the only good track on the album. Maybe my beloved Carcass had gone the way of the dollar (or pound in their case) and released one solid track to rope everyone in, then unleash a mediocre attempt at reliving their past fame. I mean come on, the old 1980s logo, the Tools of the Trade rip off cover, and it's been over 15 years since their last studio album. This practically spells out gimmick and moneygrab all over the goddamn place. My jimmies were beyond rustled at the thought.

I finally listened to it, and instantly, my jimmies were soothed. They entered a state of bloodthirst and transcended into a state zen, a shift only attainable from an album as good as or perhaps, dare I say it, better than my beloved Heartwork. This album is Carcassas they were meant to sound. Melodic, grinding, heavy as balls, and headbangable as balls. Go buy this. Or torrent it. I don't care, just let the almighty Carcass eviscerate your ears with this unfuckwithable album. Score: 5/5

EXHUMED - NECROCRACY

Exhumed blew me away with their last album, All Guts, No Glory. It was the first I'd actually heard of the band, a band that followed suite after Carcass pioneered the goregrind genre, and likewise, had a breakup and recent reformation. Now off the bat, I've gotta say that Guts was a way better album than Necrocracy. This album is still really solid, but it just lacks the ferocity and grind power it's predecessor did. Exhumed go for a more straightforward death metal sound here with some melodic elements thrown in. Unfortunately, everything seems to sound like a Heartwork b-side. Fortunately, everything seems to sound like a Heartwork b-side. The riffs show off some tight finger acrobatics and the album definitely gets your blood pumping, but I think the band tried to go as brutal as possible, but forgot what made All Guts, No Glory so good: how catchy it was. Score: 3/5

BASEMENT TORTURE KILLINGS - THE SECOND CUMMING

I honestly forget how I was introduced to this band. All I know is that one day I end up on their Bandcamp page blasting "31 Stabwounds to the Face", and I was loving it. This band whips out no holds barred goregrind, with non-stop blasting, tremolo picked riffs, and a wicked combo of raspy high vocals and guttural low vocals that would make even Bill Steer blush with envy. Over all I gotta commend these guys for making some goregrind that sounds like actual music amongst the masses of underground bands that release albums with production values that rival even Reek of Putrefaction. Come on guys, it's the 2010s, and BTK is doing it right. Why can't you?

The album loses some points because of the zillion samples that are used in the music which honestly take away form the crushing atmosphere of the album and get pretty annoying roughly four songs into this album, but they make it all back up with the greatest cover of "Pretty Woman" I've ever heard. Score: 4/5

That's all for now, folks!

-DG

Guest Review: Prostitute Disfigurement - "Descendants of Depravity" by LJCB

I have a good buddy of mine doing a review for us today. He's one of the biggest authorities on metal that I know, and he's more metal than anyone you or I know combined. I take his iron-clad word without a second thought. His ideas are a landmine of furiously made points which cannot be denied. He is LJCB. Without further ado, here is his review in all of its glory. Prepare your bodies.
-Grave Dave

Great idea. mediocre album. These guys have really let me down. Usually when i hear a kick ass name my expectations get set higher than they should be. Expectations that were not met and I feel disappointed because of it. There's a lesson here for all of the young kids trying to get into music. Only have a name that is as badass as your sound is. If you can't match that level of badass-ery you may want to find a new name such as Maroon 5, Theory of a dead man, or perhaps mountain dew code: red. But let's get to the specifics of the album, the highs were high. the lows were low. I didn't actually listen to the album because I would just think it is noise and this early in the morning it would give me a bad start to my day, I also don't have a gallon of turpentine that is available for me to drink and seeing how that is on my to do list before listening to an album such as this it will have to wait. So that's it really. Don't set your audiences expectations to high by having a super rad name only to be followed up by poor execution, and terrible album art.

PS: If you actually read all of that I commend you. I wrote it and I didn't even read it.

-LJCB

Album Review: Severe Mutilation - "Spawn of Hatred"

It's always exciting to listen to music from a country you haven't heard any music from before. I've heard music from all across the globe, and I've received promos from bands hailing from many different countries as well. My first foray into Puerto Rican metal comes to me in the form of Spawn of Hatred by death metallers Severe Mutilation.

Severe Mutilation formed in 2008 under the name Bloodspill, and originally went for more of a grindcore and hardcore outfit than a death metal one. Even as the band evolved over the years form one genre to another, they managed to stay an independent act that has amassed a solid following of fans.

I've said a gazillion times on this blog that good death metal is good death metal. And this? It's some good death metal. Severe Mutilation call back to the good old days of death metal, where bands like Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, and Suffocation reigned supreme atop their thrones made of skulls. That being said, these guys manage to bring in a pretty modern edge to the old school death metal sound.

Spawn of Hatred is ruled by riffs. Guitarists Junito and Chunk are chocked full of monstrous riffs. These guys fly by with vicious and precise tremolo picked riffs and gallops and can just as easily bring down some motherfucking slams that would make even Terrance Hobbs jealous. This album is meant for people who want to headbang and who want to headbang hard. While for me, the guitars are the highlight of Spawn of Hatred, the rest of the band dishes out some solid musical punishment, too. Drummer Felix keeps up with Junito and Chunk's top-notch riffage, alternating between blistering blastbeats and pounding double bass grooves. Vocalist Wesley busts out some very Frank Mullen inspired vocal work, but helps usher in the modern sound with some pig squeals here and there. For those of you who don't know, I'm not a fan of pig squeals but Wesley drops them with tasteful frequency, so it doesn't bother me too much.

The production on Spawn of Hatred is what helps push this album into the "modern death metal" territory. Everything sounds nice and clean here, with every member shining through in the mix (save the bassist, but more on that later). I'm not sure how I feel about clean production on death metal like this, because there's a charm to the raw recordings of old school bands that I can't seem to resist. While I definitely don't dislike clean production, I'm not sure it was the right choice for this type of music.

The shortcomings of Spawn of Hatred don't seem to come up until the second, third and further listenings. The first is that the bass seems to slowly disappear as the album goes on. The second track, "Practice What You Preach" has some sweet fat bass tones punching through the mix, but once you reach the end of the album (around "Fuck the World Bring on the Hate), the bass seems like it has been severely cut down in the mix. Maybe I'm just crazy, but it's been what I've been hearing consistently since my third or so listen. The second shortcoming of Spawn of Hatred is that I don't find it engaging past the end of the album. When it's on, I'm headbanging furiously and stomping around my house like an elephant, but as soon as it ends, I wouldn't be able to recall any moments on the album that really stood out or be able to hum any riff that popped up with even a shred of accuracy.

Bomb-Ass Tracks: Practice What You Preach, Spawn of Hatred, I Kill for God

On a Playlist With: Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, (old) Morbid Angel

Overall Score: 3/5

I stand by what I said at the beginning of this review. Spawn of Hatred is good death metal. I definitely enjoy listening to this album now, but I feel like in a month or so I won't even be spinning it once in a week. It's a shame, because while Severe Mutilation definitely show some promise, they've definitely got to step their songwriting game up so they can pump out some catchier and more memorable tunes. Once they've mastered that, I think Severe Mutilation will be a modern death metal force to be reckoned with.

Spawn of Hatred comes out May 5th independently through Severe Mutilation. You can check the band out on Facebook, MySpace, and ReverbNation.

That's all for now, folks!

-Grave Dave

Album Review: Sulphur Aeon - "Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide"

FDA Rekotz has slowly been gaining more and more respect from me. From Carcass clones Gruesome Stuff Relish (look for their song "Desecrated" on our upcoming compilation album!) to old school death metal masters Chapel of Disease, they've been putting out some of the best records and artists in underground extreme music over the past little while. Newest to the list of bands on FDA Rekotz that give me raging metal boners are Cthulhu-worshipping death metallers Sulphur Aeon.

Rising out of Germany, Sulphur Aeon just dropped their debut album Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide in the final days of 2012. It's as dark and crushing as the ocean depths and dreadfully doomy, drowning you in an unstoppable torrent of thundering blast beats, stomach churning riffs, and unholy growls. It's death metal through the darkest of lenses, as deep and black as the ocean floor itself.

Ocean's Tide wouldn't be what I call a melodic death metal album in the traditional sense. It's got more of a focus on creating an engulfing atmosphere similar to a raging storm out at sea rather than creating thrashy Gothenburg style riffs and hooks. That's not to say there aren't melodic riffs or harmonized leads across this brutal 45 minute offering, but the album's sound is more similar to Deathspell Omega rather than At The Gates or In Flames. Songs ebb and flow, tangling and untangling themselves with crushing brutality and majestic melodies that slosh around in your head as your ears get pummeled straight down to R'lyeh.

Not only are the songs beautifully atmospheric, but the playing itself is nothing to be scoffed at. This isn't an album where minimalism and fragile beauty offer up their qualities to help the overall engulfing feeling. The riffs are visceral and vicious, ranging between tremolo picked melodic lines to slower, doomy power chords that trample all over you without a second thought. There's even some awesome mosh riffs across the album, with my personal favorite being the galloping at the beginning of "Those who Dwell in Stellar Void". There are no clean passages here, no down time, and certainly no forgiveness. There is only non-stop decimation fueled by absolutely unfuckwithable songwriting.

The album starts with an intro track aptly named "Cthulhu Rites", which acts as a sort of calm before the storm, with the sound of crashing waves and blasphemous chanting setting the mood for the rest of the album. As the track builds and builds, it finally explodes into "Incantation" which along with the next eight songs waste no time swallowing whole and not letting you go until they've finished  leading you through their dark and twisted journey. Finally, after the destruction has ceased and the dust has settled comes the instrumental anthem "Zombi", the soundtrack to a certain Great Old One, now content with the havoc it has just wreaked, returning once again to the deep, dark watery depths it calls home.

Bomb-Ass Tracks: Incantation, Those who Dwell in Stellar Void, Zombi

On a Playlist With: Deathspell Omega, Septicflesh, Dissection

Overall Score

4.5

Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide is a perfect pairing of dark and regal, something I can only describe as "beautifully disgusting". Sulphur Aeon are a band that entertain and enthrall, that blend brutality with excellent songwriting and playing.

Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide is out on FDA Rekotz, and you can contact Sulphur Aeon directly on their Facebook page.

That's all for now, folks! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

-DG

Album Review: Chapel of Disease - "Summoning Black Gods"

We all love death metal. That's a fact. If you don't like death metal, I understand where you're coming from, but you're wrong and I hate you. These past couple years have been fantastic for us death metal enthusiasts, with bands that push the modern sound even further, and bands that do nothing but play Death/ Asphyx/ Morgoth worshipping old school death metal. We hold the '80s and '90s bands we've come to love close to our hearts and it's a damn shame they're not around anymore (Death), or that they're just fucking with their fans by releasing complete atrocities (I'm looking at you, Morbid Angel). Fortunately for us though, we've got a new generation of bands that are bursting forth from the grave to deliver rotten, putrid death metal to our ears, and wouldn't you know it: Chapel of Disease is one of those bands.

Chapel of Disease is a German death metal band formed only back in 2008. It took a while for them to get things rolling, but they managed to pump out their original demo tapes and their first full length Summoning Black Gods in 2012 while signing to FDA Rekotz in between. Chapel of Disease is a band that focuses on what made late '80s death metal so freaking awesome. Catchy riffs, wailing, throaty vocals, and high tempo songs with soul-crushingly slow and doomy bridges. Here, the band is more focused on writing evil sounding, hook-laden songs rather than trying to be the heaviest or most brutal band on the planet.

The guitar riffs sound primal and thrashy, with tons of tremolo picked riffs and crushing power chords ripping their way across your speakers. Guitarists Laurent and Cedric's twin riffing attack uses thick tones, heavy distortion, and lots of chromaticism. It's like Death's Leprosy and Possessed's Seven Churches made sweet, sweet decrepit love and nine months later, out popped Summoning Black Gods. The solos are totally late '80s era inspired too, where small melodic passages are tossed in with chaotic thrash metal shredding to create some seriously addicting stuff. While neither Laurent nor Cedric are this new generation's Chuck Schuldiner (the man is a fuckin' legend), they can still bust out some fretburning, face-melting guitar work when they need to.

Laurent's vocals are probably the biggest throwback to OSDM on this album. Yeah, drummer David can double kick the shit out of his kit and d-beat with the best of them, just like the good old days, but Laurent captures the pre-90s death metal rasp perfectly. Most new-era OSDM vocalists go for Frank Mullen (Suffocation) or Chris Barnes (ex-Cannibal Corpse) style guttural lows, so it's really exciting to not only hear someone deliver these often-neglected mid-to-high pitched growls, but to hear them do it so well.

Production also (as expected) keeps in style with the old school feel of the band and album. Think a cleaner version of Spiritual Healing. Things are still raw and wild, but you can hear all the instruments perfectly, and there is no ear piercing treble or muddy bass to be found anywhere in the mix.

Bomb-Ass Tracks: Summoning Black Gods, Exili's Heritage, The Loved Dead

On a Playlist With: Your uncle's old underground death metal tapes from 1988.

Overall Score

4.0

Chapel of Disease is a horrible, filthy monster of a death metal band that looks back to the genre's roots. Summoning Black Gods sounds like it came straight out of 1987, right alongside Severed Survival, Master, and the like. If you've any space in your cold, black, unforgiving heart for another death metal band, make it Chapel of Disease.

You can pick up Summoning Black Gods from FDA Rekotz and Give Praise Records, and you can check out the band's Bookface page here.

That's all for now, folks! Trample the weak, hurdle the dead.

-DG

Album Review: Ulcer - "Grant Us Death"

Sweden. 1990. HM-2 distortion pedals are all the rage. Entombed just released Left Hand Path. It's a brutal, crushing album filled with bonesaw riffs, D-beats, and inhuman howls.

Wait.

No.

Fuck.

I mixed that up. Let me try again.

Poland. 2013. HM-2 distortion pedals have been long-forgot until the the recent resurgence of Entombedcore and Dismember-worship bands. Ulcer is about to release Grant Us Death. It's a brutal, crushing album filled with bonesaw riffs, D-beats, and inhuman howls.

That sounds about right this time.

If you couldn't tell by my spiel up there, Ulcer is a Polish death metal band that drop the most sickening type of death metal out there: '90's Swedish death metal. Morbid melodies, grave-turning aggression, and non-stop moshing is name of the game here with Grant Us Death. Ulcer know exactly what they're aiming for and achieve just that. I'm going to give a disclaimer, I really like this genre and these kinds of bands, so I am a little somewhat pretty much totally biased.

Everything goes as expected on Grant Us Death. There are no twists. There are no turns. No parts that make me stop and go say ...holy fuck... how did... I... what just happened? All throughout Grant Us Death's 42 running time, there's nothing but straight the fuck up death metal. No bullshit and no questions asked. The guitars have that perfect Sunlight Studios tone that everyone's beloved Entombed, Dismember, and Bloodbath all have. Perfectly nauseating and beefed up with thick as fuck distortion. The riffs are not only as melodic as back in '91, but they seem to have a certain amount of originality to them as well. It's nice to hear considering every other Entombed or Dismember-worship band pretty much just plays a mash-up of Left Hand Path and Like an Ever Flowing Stream.

It's beautiful (and I use that in the loosest sense of the term) to hear the vocals here. If there's a way to do old school Swede-death, D (that's the only name I could get from their Facebook page) has it down pat. He sounds raw, vicious, and ready to tear my throat out with his bare hands. There are certain bits on the album that D really sells. His bloodcurdling howls near the end of "Thanatoeuphoria" his giant loogie hock at the end of "Godcremation" are both little moments that you can't help but smile at.

Overall production is also totally brutal here too. Like I've already said, there are those famous Entombed and Dismember style guitars, but the drumming, bass, and vocals are also kept pretty rough around the edges. Things are definitely clearer than those '90s albums, but things are just raw enough to bring all that nostalgia surging back.

Bomb-Ass Tracks: Devilspeed, Godcremation, My Lord Has Horns

On a Playlist With: Sorry, I can't find their names. I must have dropped them earlier.

Alright, fine. Dismember and Entombed.

Overall Score

4.0

Ulcer smash your brains out with Grant Us Death, plain and simple. It's 90's Swede-death done right. Evil never sounded so good.

Grant Us Death comes out February 19th, 2013 on Pulverized Records. You can check out Ulcer's Mybook or FaceSpace pages.

That's all for now, folks!

-DG

Album Review: Hivesmasher - "Gutter Choir"

Hivesmasher are a band I heard about through MetalSucks, where they linked a stream of their song "En Route to Meat Land" off of their newest album Gutter Choir. I listened to that song and the only song available on their bandcamp, "Used Food", and I was hooked. I immediately pre-ordered Gutter Choir, and I've been waiting attentively at my mailbox ever since.

Hivesmasher are a Massachusetts based grindcore/ death metal band that play in a style comparable to Pig Destroyer. Where Pig Destroyer can lock into insta-mosh grooves that make bodies fling across rooms, Hivesmasher deal out a fucking hurricane of shrapnel that makes you run for your fucking life. Gutter Choir has to be one of the most pissed off, primal, and depraved albums I've heard in a while. It's the motherfucking Sharknado of music. Gutter Choir has a range of songs, from 30 second grindfests to 5 minute death metal tunes and even a 37 minute final track that flies between grindcore, death metal, bluegrass, ambient, and shoegaze. Yeah. Fuuuuuuck.

The album seems to feed off of a seemingly endless pool of riffs that never fail to decimate your ears. From low chugs and gallops to upper-register riffs that sound like power drills boring their way into your skull, guitarists Tyler and Julius are masters of controlled chaos. I'm not sure which one of them handle lead playing  on the album, but the solos in "And They Thought We'd Forget" and "Vulture Assassin" are absolutely wicked. Beautifully crafted to fall right between tasteful shredding and mindbending guitar madness, the solos on Gutter Choir are incredibly refreshing to hear on an album in a genre known for almost excluding lead work from their music.

The drumming on the album is something worthy of praise as well. Drummer Tim Brault is a freaking machine, cranking out every type of blast, mosh beat, and thrash rhythm known to man. The drums sound really organic despite the inhuman speed that they're played at, and when they lock in with the guitars like in the gallop/ mosh section of "Damaged (P)Inc.", the mixture of the different tones makes an absolutely nauseating groove. When Aaron Heinold's guttural and blood curdling screams start soaring over top, Hivesmasher really sound like the kind of guys your mother warns you about.

Lastly, unlike Pig Destroyer's Blake Harrison, Hivesmasher's Dan Bolton is actually audible on the keyboards. Between the beautiful ending of "Damaged (P)Inc." and the layers and layers of synth on the 37 minute epic "Send Me to Satan", Bolton's keyboard playing really adds another layer of depth to the music and provides nice little breaks from all of the relentless aural beatings. I'm not going to describe "Send Me to Satan", because holy fuck. It's just an experience in itself.

I have to say the only thing that stops this from being a perfect album for me is the length. It's just too long. Over an hour for a grind record is just brutal. I think Hivesmasher should have released the first 16 songs as Gutter Choir and then "Send Me to Satan" as a bonus EP or something. Some sort of way to separate up all the material would have made both potential releases much easier to listen to.

Bomb-Ass Tracks: Vomitouch, The Shit Waltz, And They Thought We'd Forget, Send Me to Satan

On a Playlist With: Pig Destroyer, Wormrot, Agoraphobic Nosebleed (Agorapocalypse)

Overall Score

4.5

Hivesmasher have written one of the best grind albums of the year. Yeah, I know there are a lot of them this year, but I'd put Gutter Choir up there with Pig Destroyer's Book Burner (review here). If you're a fan of any sort of extreme music, or just want a soundtrack to wreak havoc to, Gutter Choir should be your first choice.

That's all for now, folks!

-DG

Album Review: Termination Force - "Grind Thrashing Death"

Every once in a while, an album comes around that embodies a genre so perfectly that you can't help but grin from ear to ear every time you listen to it. Termination Force's Grind Thrashing Death is that album. I mean, just read that last sentence. The band is called Termination Force, and the album is called Grind Thrashing Death. Grind Thrashing Death, goddamnit. It's official: the dudes in Termination Force are more metal than you'll ever be.

A zombie band playing in front of a zombie mosh pit. I have a raging thrash metal boner right now.

Termination Force are a four piece thrash/ death band from Houston, Texas. They say everything is bigger in Texas, and apparently, the metal is too. Termination Force are primarily a thrash band and border on old school American death metal. It's like Possessed meets Pleasure to Kill era Kreator here. Sometimes, a little grindcore circa 1988 gets tossed in for good measure, just because Termination Force won't rest until your ears are bleeding from all the metal.

The band is fast, furious, and Tokyo drifting, with the guitarists punching in old school death metal riffs that would make the late, great Chuck Schuldiner proud. Hell, even the lead tone of the guitar and the soloing style seems reminiscent of Chuck's old guitarwork on Leprosy and Spiritual Healing. Not only are the riffs brutal as fuck, but they're catchy, too. Songs rarely hit near 4 minutes long over the 9 tracks and average out at around two and a half minutes, but that doesn't mean that there's a shortage of awesome riffs anywhere on Grind Thrashing Death.

The vocals are handled beautifully, with depraved, raspy growls being the main type of style used. Occasionally they plummet down to guttural, demonic levels, but for the most part, they stay at a pretty mid-high pitch, similar to Mille Petrozza's (of Kreator fame) vocals. Unfortunately I don't have access to any lyrics, so I can't comment on how well they're written, but with song titles like "Kills per Minute", "Human Intestinal Stew" and "Smashed and Thrashed into Submission", I can tell you for sure that they're totally appropriate to quote when you and your family are having dinner.

The last two things I want to touch on quickly are the drumming and the production. The drumming is phenomenal. Like, holy fuck. This dude can shred on drums. I can't even really describe it. Every beat fits every song perfectly every time. I feel like this man's kit needs to be made of cast steel or something so he doesn't break his kit every song.

I'm not sure if I told you or not, but I like his drumming.

Finally, the production is perfect for this type of music. It's raunchy and nauseatingly dirty, but clear enough that all the instruments shine through. It has the warmth and thickness of an old 1991 death metal release, but the clarity of the 2012 release that it is. Beautiful. The only gripe I have with this album is the length. It clocks in at just over 25 minutes, which just isn't quite enough for me. Death metal blue balls. Sadface.

Bomb-Ass Tracks: Repulsive Impulsive, Kills per Minute, Obligate to Obliterate

On a Playlist With: Kreator, Possessed, (early) Death

Overall Score

4.5

Like I said, Termination Force are more metal than you. Grind Thrashing Death is a fucking beast of a death/ thrash release. If only it were a bit longer, it would be perfect. You can (and should) pick it up through Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.

That's all for now, folks!

-DG

Album Review: The Faceless - "Autotheism"

After my analysis of why everybody has a boner for The Faceless, I promised myself I'd check out their new album Autotheism once it was released. Well, it came out today, and here I am. Let's get our tech-death on.

Anata called. They want their album cover back.

When I reviewed Planetary Duality, I said it "shoots to be something head and shoulders above the swathes of generic tech-death bands and gets close, but gets dragged back down by some sub-par vocals". My main problems with Planetary Duality were Derek Rydquist's higher register screams and the overuse of vocoders and vocal effects. Autotheism sees Rydquist replaced by Geoffrey Ficco who, in my opinion, is a much more well rounded vocalist (as well rounded as you can get with death metal vocals). This album also leaves the vocal effects behind (save for the awesome Stephen Hawking-esque voice in "Hail Science") and has guitarist Michael Keene taking up the mic much more often than before.

Keene's voice is even more powerful than before as well, with him being able to sing with more vigor and with a much larger range. His voice now seems to take on a Devin Townsend sort of tone, leaning more to Heavy Dev's calm side as opposed to his more aggressive one. I know that a lot of Faceless fans that suffered from bad cases of butthurt because Keene sings a lot on Autotheism, but they just need to get past it. Not everything needs to be a growl of scream. The man sings well and his voice is never tacky or out of place. You should applaud him for it.

This release also shows a little bit of experimentation from The Faceless. The first three songs, dubbed "Autotheist Movement" span 18 minutes of shifting music, from haunting piano and string sections to full on brutality to clean jazzy sections reminiscent of tech-death and jazz fusion legends Cynic. "Autotheist Movement III: Deconsecrate" shows the beautiful use of saxophone near the ending as well. [EDIT 20-Aug-2012: I recently discovered that the saxophonist on "Desconsecrate" is none other than Sergio "Sexy Sax Man" Flores. Fuck. Yes.] One thing I have to say I really like about the use of sax on Autotheism is that it's very smooth melodic playing, rather than the frantic and chaotic playing that has been cropping up on recent metal releases (Napalm Death and Ihsahn come to mind). I've got to say that the entirety of "Autotheist Movement" is probably one of the best written modern death metal songs I've heard in a long time.

One last thing I need to address on this album is the bass. Everyone knows I'm a sucker for good bass playing, and man, is the bass playing ever good on here. It's mixed perfectly with the other instruments so that you can hear it  very clearly without it overpowering any other instrument, and both the bass tone and phrasing really push forward a sort of jazz fusion and progressive rock vibe (a la modern Opeth and Cynic).

Bomb-Ass Tracks

Autotheist Movement I: Create: The beautiful and haunting intro track ebbs and flows through a sort of ethereal death metal sound. Michael Keene's vocals really shine here too.

Autotheist Movement III: Deconsecrate: There's everything you need here. Catchy riffs, face melting solos, brutal vocals, and that beautiful sax I was talking about earlier.

Ten Billion Years: [Insert remark about how catchy and well written the song is.]

On a Playlist With: (old) Cynic, Obscura, Decrepit Birth

Overall Score

4.0

This is the album Planetary Duality wanted to be. The Faceless have really created something that stands out in the technical death metal scene, which seems to get even more boring and saturated with mediocre bands by the day. Autotheism really makes me excited for where The Faceless are heading, and hopefully, where tech-death is going as a genre.

That's all for now, folks! Hail science.

Carcass Week: Heartwork

Sorry for the delay, I was really busy yesterday jumping on trampolines to post this.


Alright guys, almost done. We'll take a little walk through Carcass' second last album, Heartwork. This album is my favorite of all their releases, and I hold it as one of my favorite metal albums of all time. So without further ado, let's crack open this masterpiece and take a look inside.

Leave it to H.R. Giger to make even the peace symbol creepy as fuck.

Heartwork is the classic case of:

1. Band has previously released br00tal material.
2. Band releases new record exploring softer sounds and new territory.
3. Butthurt fans galore.

Now, when I say "softer sounds", I'm talking about death metal. I know, I know, death metal isn't soft music. I said it was softer. Because everything is softer than goregrind. Well, maybe guttural slamming prono-deathgrind or Merzbow are harsher, but still. Death metal is lower on the heaviness scale than grind.

Heartwork carries onward with the same lineup as Necroticism. Jeff Walker on bass and vocals, Bill Steer and Michael Amott on guitars and Ken Owen on drums. For me, this is the winning lineup, each member putting in the perfect mix of aggression, melody, and interesting songwriting. Steer steps down from the position of backing vocalist and leaves Walker to growl and howl his way through the album alone. This isn't a bad thing at all, because Walker has developed his vocals into fearsome and blood curdling screams.

There are harmonized guitars and beautiful leads all over the place, and the riffs just blow you away with their originality and power. I still haven't heard anything like the instantly recognizable intro riff to to title track, and the opening of "Carnal Forge" is one of my favorite riffs ever. Carcass is practically grind-free on Heartwork, and are starting to step out of the gore theme too. Not entirely, mind you, because there are still some grindy passages here and a couple of songs about dismemberment, disembowelment and disfiguration, but not enough for the album to be considered goregrind let alone plain old grindcore.

What I love most about Heartwork is how catchy it is. Not only is the music great old school melodic death metal (melo-death), but the album is filled to the brim with memorable guitar passages and vocals. When I say old school, I mean "this album pioneered the genre" old school (for those keeping track, that makes Carcass the gorefathers of grindcore and one of the originators of melo-death. Pretty impressive track record, right?). Although you can't pull any sort of melody out of Walker's growls, they still seem to stick in your mind like peanut butter on the roof of your mouth.

Honestly, there isn't really any major flaw I can point out in Heartwork. It's not too long. It's not too short. Every song is at worst enjoyable, and at best an instant classic. The production is clear and keeps everything even in the mix. Although I hold this album in the highest regard, and it stands today as one of my favorites (it makes surprisingly good music to iron your shirts to), it still seems like there's just something missing. I don't know what it is, though. There's something missing that's keeping Heartwork in my top 20, but not in my top 10.

On a Playlist With: At The Gates, Carnage, (old) Cannibal Corpse

Overall Score


4.5

Evile singer/ guitarist said everything there is to say about Heartwork. He called it "just one of the best albums ever".

Unfortunately, there's no Carcass Drinking Game for Heartwork, and there won't be one for Swansong either. If that makes you a sad panda, just break out Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness again.

That's all for now, folks! Next up for Carcass Week we've got the final installment: Swansong!

Carcass Week: Symphonies of Sickness

We're back for the second day of Carcass Week! Yesterday we looked at Reek of Putrefaction, and today we'll be looking at Carcass' sophomore album, Symphonies of Sickness.

Symphonies takes massive steps forwards from where Reek left off, mainly in the production aspect, but musically it's still a big honkin' slice of goregrind. I went over what goregrind is exactly yesterday, so I won't cover it again here. Let's dive straight into the album!

Again, the censored version. Again, the uncensored is both  gross and NSFW. Here it is.

This review will be pretty short, because as far as the music is concerned, it's pretty similar in flavour and texture as Reek. It's frantic, brutal grind with absolutely addictive riffing courtesy or Bill Steer. Steer handles the lead work yet again, and his playing has evolved since the last album, as he delivers aggressive but melodic solos and passages over the rest of the chaos. It's another step closer to his legendary style of guitar playing that is shown on my favorite Carcass record, Heartwork. Also, keep in mind, those of you who haven't brushed up on your heavy metal history, that Michael Amott (of Arch Enemy fame) had not yet joined the band.

Everything else is an evolved version of Reek here, too. The drums are more tasteful, and the blast beats are actually in time(!), while Steer's vocals sound gurglier than ever and Walker's rasp is more focused and powerful. Songwriting is much better this time around as well, showing us that the boys know when to let loose with everything they've got and when to slow down and breathe.

The biggest difference between Symphonies and Reek, as I mentioned, are the production values. Like, holy shit. They're still not fantastic, mind you, but the album actually sounds like it was recorded in 1989 and not the stone age. The mixing is much better too drums are pushed higher in the mix, giving them the attention they deserve, and similar to their first album, the bass is turned up high, just the way I like it. This time around, everything fits together well and nothing gets drowned out or overpowered by anything else.

On a Playlist With: General Surgery, Exhumed, Haemorrhage

Overall Score

3.5

As far as old school goregrind and grindcore are concerned, Symphonies of Sickness is an enduring classic and deserves respect. I've gotten more into grind after listening to this year's new Napalm Death album, so I can definitely appreciate Reek and Symphonies much more now than when I first heard them. However, my ears still aren't 100% grind proof, and after every time I go through this album I've got to switch to something a little easier on the ears. 

For anyone who is into grind and hasn't yet listened to this (for whatever reason), you should give Symphonies of Sickness a listen. If you're not into grind, you probably won't like this album overall, but it'll probably have its moments for you. Symphonies is the last true grind release by the mighty Carcass, but it serves as a perfect template for their next album to expand upon. More on that tomorrow.

Carcass: Purulent Bile Excrement and Consumption 2: Consume Harder


That's Carcass: The Drinking Game 2: Drink Harder, for the normal people out there. The game works as so.

1. Load up Symphonies of Sickness on to your CD player/ record player/ iTunes/ whatever.
2. Print out copies of the lyrics to all the songs for everyone playing.
3. Pour yourself a nice tall glass of your favorite drink.
4. Press play and get blooddrunk.

As the songs play through, have everyone follow through the lyrics. Drink every time:

• There's a word you don't know the definition of.
• You think "ew", "gross", "disgusting" or any similar words after reading a disturbing line. If you notice one of your friends isn't drinking to this, that probably means they're a serial killer. I'm just sayin'.

That's it. Let's take a sample game through the song "Cadaveric Incubator Of Endo-parasites". Red are words I don't know, and Yellow are lines I think are disgusting.


"Cadaveric Incubator Of Endo-parasites"

The inset of rigor mortis, ulcerous corruption and decay

Saponified fats lather as soap as you slowly eat yourself away...

Organs savaged by rotten enzymes, rennin and rancorous cysts

A festering abcess immersed in ravenous autolysis...

Breaking down of dead tissue fuels methane gases

A smouldering human compost-heap of self-digested haemorrhage...

Emulsifying carnage, your purpulent torso is mummified

A mortified, marbled feast for drooling parasites...

Your lungs consumed in gore, slime and worm encrusted

Brittle tests eroded in hot, corrosive succus

Adhering to the bone, tissue necrosis a maggot feast

A cadaveric crematorium, gaseous spumescence leaks..

Your rump sustaining hostile organisms

Mould, eggs and larvae

Peptonized spleen, liver and kidneys

A wasting, degenerate slime

Septicaemic mutation

Of rancid meat and writhing life

Psychedelic, pustular platter of gunge

Come and take a bite...

Dormant fungoid growths

On the smarting human host

Come bathe, cleanse and wash

With livor mortis and dry rot......

Lice and ticks...

Flesh matted with hatching spawn

Endo-parasites incubate in the warmth

Mortician's implements to tap and bleed

The swarming insects' seed......

Lice and ticks...

expel bloody sick...

Leathery skin bubbles as blue-bottles hatch

Maggot infestation turns the rotting corpse black...

Slushy bowels move as our friends squirm

Flatulent belches - dry, festered and warm...

Total Drinks: 16

Things are a little heavier here with the ridiculous and potentially made up words. There are 10 tracks (16 with the bonus tracks included), which means 160 to 256 drinks. If you play through Carcass' first two albums, I guarantee you won't be waking up the next day. But you're all mature adults (that's why you're reading a blog post about drinking games for extreme metal albums), so I trust you all to drink responsibly and not die from alcohol poisoning.

That's all for now, folks. Tomorrow: Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious!*

*Totally typed that out from memory. Boo yeah.

Carcass Week: Reek of Putrefaction

Welcome to the first day of Carcass Week, where I'm going to be going through and reviewing all of the almighty Carcass' studio albums! First up, their debut: Reek of Putrefaction!

This is the censored artwork. The uncensored is gross. It's also NSFW. You've been warned.  It's here.

Reek of Putrefaction is considered one of the first goregrind albums out there, having been released in 1988. For anyone who is confused by the term goregrind, it's a variation of grindcore. Musically, grindcore and goregrind can be very similar, but it's in the themes and lyrical content where they stand apart. Whereas traditional grindcore dealt with political and social themes of oppression, government control, and anarchy (among others), goregrind covers lovely topics like disembowelment, cannibalism, and necrophilia (among others). For anyone familiar with old school death metal (a la Cannibal Corpse and friends), these themes of grisly, brutal death and dismemberment shouldn't come as a surprise. What Carcass did was look at the groundwork laid out by all these death metal bands and though "let's make these guys' lyrics sound like whatever you would call Sesame Street".

Hard as fuck is what I'd call 'em.

Let's look at a small excerpt from Cannibal Corpse's classic: "Hammer Smashed Face".

The sledge my tool to torture

As it pounds down on your forehead

Eyes bulging from their sockets

With every swing of my mallet

So yeah. Smashing faces. With a hammer. That's pretty fucking brutal, right? It's cute you think that. Let's take a snippet of one of Reek of Putrefaction's songs. I'll choose one of my favorites, "Vomited Anal Tract". You can already tell how this is going to go.

Liquidized esophagus mixes with bloodied excretion

As you pathetically gasp for breath 

The stench of hot feces scorch your nose 

As you violently vomit to death

Yup. Barfing up your butt. Like, puking so hard you pull your body practically inside out. I'll give you a second for the shock of disgust to wear off.

Ready to go? Cool. So now, we're all on the same page about what goregrind is. Let's get to the album.

Reek of Putrefaction, despite being Carcass' first album which pushed the boundaries as to how extreme music, lyrics, and cover art could go, is still seen by many metal fans as their worst album. I have to agree with them. Reek of Putrefaction is goddamn unlistenable.

Production is awful. I mean, I know it was 1988, but I can record Christian Bale's Batman tripping balls on acid and growling into a huge echoing cavern with an 8-track recorder from the 50s and it'll come out clearer and more coherent than this. Everything's got a grainy and raw sound, which, isn't always a good thing. Some bands take advantage of that style of production to drive home the gritty and dirty sound they're going for. That could've worked for Carcass if the level mixing and EQing wasn't awful as well. The bass is loud, which would be nice, but it isn't, because it sounds less like a bass and more like sloppy wet farts. The drums have no clarity, especially when blast beats are involved. When Carcass goes full throttle on Reek, they seem to collapse into a giant mushy ball of sound. It's something they probably realized after releasing the album, because of their 1989 followup, Symphonies of Sickness remedied all the flaws of Reek, but I'll get to that tomorrow.

If you're able to listen past the sloppy production and shitty mixing, Reek of Putrefaction is pretty darn good. There are some catchy riffs here and there, and the lead guitar work of Bill Steer is top notch, as always. After hearing Carcass' later releases like Heartwork and Swansong, I can hear the same style of lead guitar playing, albeit much more viscous on this album. It's kind of cool to listen through a discography and see how band members' playing styles evolve over time.

Bill Steer (left) and Jeff Walker (right). Their faces are about as disgusting as their music.

Something else I've always loved about old school Carcass is the dual vocal attack of Jeff Walker and Bill Steer. Steer handles some brutal, nauseating gurgles and low growls, while Walker screams and shrieks like a madman over top. Oh, grindcore. <3

Bomb-Ass Tracks


Maggot Colony, Vomited Anal Tract, and Splattered Cavities: What can I say. They're all pieces of dirty, filthy goregrind.

On a Playlist With: Exhumed, General Surgery, Haemorrhage

Overall Score

2.0

For the modern day Carcass fan, Reek of Putrefaction is more of a you-might-as-well-have-it-in-your-collection piece. There are some diehards out there who swear by it as the end-all of goregrind, but really, let's not kid ourselves. Reek is just the appetizer in this carnal feast. It's not enough to fill you up, but it'll whet your blade and make you want to carve into their next albums with full force.

Carcass: Purulent Bile Excrement and Consumption


That's Carcass: The Drinking Game, for the normal people out there. The game works as so.

1. Load up Reek of Putrefaction on to your CD player/ record player/ iTunes/ whatever.
2. Print out copies of the lyrics to all the songs for everyone playing.
3. Pour yourself a nice tall glass of your favorite drink.
4. Press play and get blooddrunk.

As the songs play through, have everyone follow through the lyrics. Drink every time:

• There's a word you don't know the definition of.
• You think "ew", "gross", "disgusting" or any similar words after reading a disturbing line. If you notice one of your friends isn't drinking to this, that probably means they're a serial killer. I'm just sayin'.

That's it. Let's take a sample game through the song we've already looked at. Red are words I don't know, and Yellow are lines I think are disgusting.

"Vomited Anal Tract"

Oral eruption
Rectal extroversion...

Your vagus implodes, as nausea strikes
Savaging your body in terminal retch
Violent spasms and decaying enzymes
Engulf your throat as you belch

Intestinal disturbance, your ileum turns inside-out
Your duodenum is thrust up towards your mouth
Your pancreas excretes stale septic pus
Your whole digestive system is now a sticky mush
Rectal vomit in your thorax
Retch your anal tract

Liquidized esophagus mixes with bloodied excretion
As you pathetically gasp for breath
The stench of hot feces scorch your nose
As you violently vomit to death

Your intestines are rising, up towards your throat
Stale bile escaping through your bloodied nose
Your colon digested into acidic slush
Your tongue gargling on your dislocated anus


Total drinks: 13.

This one was pretty tame. There are 22 tracks on Reek of Putrefaction. Assuming 13 drinks per song, that's 286 drinks. Have fun. Tomorrow: Symphonies of Sickness!

That's all for now, folks. And remember: Don't drink and dismember!*

*I'm totally coining that phrase. Go me.

Album Review: Dying Fetus - "Reign Supreme"

This is the first re-post of all my Tumblr reviews. I've decided that this page will just be a big clusterfuck of things, from reviews to random shit. Woo!

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The new Dying Fetus album Fries Supreme is out. Just, fuck. Holy. Fuck.

 

Just so you know, comparing Dying Fetus to Taco Bell is totally reasonable. Taco Bell unleashes a gut-retching assault on your innards, causing you to (most likely) shit out your lungs. The same holds for Reign Supreme. Dying Fetus have crafted a bulletproof monster of an album that just rips you apart, anus first.

But before I go sucking Dying Fetus' collective dongs, I'll give a little intro on the band for those of you who don't know who they are. Dying Fetus is a Death Metal band/ Brutal Death Metal band/ Slam Death Metal band/ Technical Death Metal band (just Death Metal from here on in) from Maryland in the good ol' U.S. of A. Unlike most Death Metal bands of their ilk, Dying Fetus don't glorify violence in their lyrics. Instead they focus on political and modern social themes, but seriously who cares. You can't understand what the fuck Jon Gallagher (the bald one) is saying, ever.

The songwriting is fantastic here as well, with no part of the album letting up on the brutal onslaught. I never felt like any part was too drawn out or was getting boring through my listen. Whenever I wanted face-meltingly fast Death Metal, there was face-meltingly fast Death Metal, and whenever I wanted br00tal slamz, I got br00tal slamz.

The only downside to Reign Supreme is that even though it's a fucking monster of a Death Metal album, that's all it is.  As much as I fucking love me some Death Metal, my interests will most likely phase to some other genre of music (never), and when that happens, Dying Fetus won't really have anything to offer me (yeah, right). However, once I get back into a Death Metal phase (always), rest assured, Reign Supreme will be the first thing I go to.

Bomb-Ass Tracks

Subjected to a Beating: The second song off of Reign Supreme opens up with the Fetus' classic slamming mid-paced section, but once that massive drum fill/ solo kicks in, shit hits the fan.

From Womb to Waste: Opening with an unforgettable sample, this song just pounds your face in with some of the best riffs on the album.

Revisionist Past: All I have to say is dat intro solo.

On a Playlist With: Decrepit Birth, more Dying Fetus, Enpedestalment

Overall Score

4.5

Death Metal done fucking right, kids. Put on a pair of jeans that fit and take notes from the kings.