Rating: 8.1

Country: Switzerland

Release Date: 2008

Record Label: Fastbeast Entertainment

Track list:
1. Pleasure Chest 02:30
2.Overdose per Hole 03:16
3.Shatter the Spinal Chord 02:31
4.Severed in the Cemetery 02:18
5.Chainsaw Ass Massacre 02:46
6.Fecalphallus 02:28
7.Teabagged to Death 02:27
8.Undescribable Butchery 03:12
9.Pre-Natal Cannibalism 03:10
10.Odious Discharge 02:34
11.The Uncured Sickness 05:24

Total playing time32:36

Band Website: Amagortis

Amagortis - Pre-Natal Cannibalism

Guitar/Vocals - Daniel
Vocals - Pascal
Bass - Nat
Drums - Stoef

The back tray card says 'Slamming Guttural Brutality'. Now, at DC we've been gettin' slammed for slammin' all the slammin' bands recently, so I'm goin' to do my best to be nice to Amagortis. So, is this Swiss outfit yet another slam-glam-jam-sham chugga-lug-thug band? Well, no, not really, that's why I thoroughly enjoyed Pre-Natal Cannibalism! You see, rather than just chuckin' together a few throwaway riffs penned five minutes prior to recordin', addin' tiresome snare rattle then sloppin' idle guttural patterns over it, they've come up with an album full of energy; it's got huge, drivin' grooves introduced via breakneck power-strum sections, plus rollin' chorus catchiness, big chunky chugs and irresistible build-ups to instantly noddable pit-bits.

The reason this had me bobbin' my head all over the place like a silly twat is 'cos of its unstoppable momentum, sizeable thrust and tight, adrenalized delivery. The songs are fairly complex in that they move quite a lot of ideas in different directions, but with enough tune-focus to keep things digestible and memorable. They'll shunt your lugs about with sudden changes of pace, goin' from blast-heavy, buzzsaw string-swirl thru to segmented riff-blockage or into chugulated locomotion, but almost always end up shovin' your grinnin', toothless jaw back onto solid ground again as soon as they build seamlessly into total Brutal Death slam-pit hedonism, also throwin' in some tongue-in-cheek, major key nursery rhyme chugment along the way to keep things entertainin'. Although there're a lot of different things going on, the songs all have clear, effective progressions to make the multiple bits 'n' bobs easy to get into as a whole, aided by a plentiful recurrence of the catchiest parts. The broad, viscous bass adds much density to the piece, twanglin' along to the tunes with rampant abandon, sometimes carryin' entire phrases such as the dynamic segues into chug-fun where the guitars briefly take upon a skeletal frame, allowin' simmerin' basslines to boil over and scald the front of your head off. Drummin' is poundin', powerful and of varyin' complexity, but refrains from drownin' out the tunes with any overzealous gravity-blast aspirations or careless kick-use and keeps things rollin' along nice and cohesively. The vox are very good too, and make a conscious effort to truly drive the tunes with their carefully constructed narration, wrappin' hefty guttural huskiness tightly around the tunes and often decoratin' them with whimsical pig-vomit patterns.

There's quite a prominent Lust o' Decay feel to this, 'cos it takes the flowin' bludgeon and catchy and uplifting balls-out slam of Kingdom of Corpses and jumbles it up with the convoluted approach of Purity Through Dismemberment, but with a cohesive overall songwritin' that reminds a bit of big, bulky stuff like Strangulation. It also has a similar soarin' chug 'n' groove method to that of Human Rejection, and perhaps Embludgeoned as well, only with more imaginative vox. Said vox have the kind of guttural you'd expect, but some of the more comical porcine passages reminded me of Necrotorture, or Paul the GEK out of Crepitation. Here and there you might find bits of Stabwound Intercourse by Gorgasm, and some Severe Torture style crushery as well.

Production-wise, the recordin' sounds nice and clear in some places, but a bit hazy in a lot of the others; the drums usually sound well-rounded and pleasantly panned, but the snare keeps poppin' up and down in the mix, sometimes reduced to a wee pitter-patter, while the minimal cymbals are thin and clipped, so they just sound like gentle metallic tappin'. The guitars have a scythin' tone, but they're often splattered in runny fuzz-mud, especially in the chuggier parts, which dampens their effect a bit, although the thunderin' bass rumble does compensate for this quite a lot. Vox recordin' retains all the lovely slobberiness, but the higher pitched, pigulated parts seem a bit muted. However, once you get into it, which doesn't take very long at all, most of these things don't really matter too much. The packagin' is fairly standard for this sort of gore-inclined Brutal Death and actually a bit tame especially considerin' the release comes packaged with a separate 'Censored Artwork!' insert, underneath which you've got a glowy, Jon-Zig style renderin' courtesy of Mike Majewski of Devourment fame, depictin' an unfortunate young lady havin' hear foetus removed by a couple of grinnin' demonic types. Inside you'll find all the lyrics, which is nice, 'cos it's good fun singin' along with their gloriously filthy, foul-mouthed themes of gory debauch.

This has fat, sweaty pit-riffs, chin-splinterin' rhythmic crush, lurchin' chugment, boomin' low-end, slippery vokill slurps and a few colourful splashes of silliness. Unoriginal, but great fun.

May 30th, 2008