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Release Date: 2007 Record Label: Grindethic Track list:
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Crepitation/Kastrated/Ingested - North West Slam Fest
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Crepitation are: Mark Pearce - Low vocals |
Kastrated are: Chris - Vocals |
Ingested are: Jason Evans - Vocals |
Everybody give a big, long, silly reeeeeeeeeee for British Brutal Death!! Now then, we all know that the United States has had the Brutal Death Metal genre in a vice-like stranglehold for the past few years. However, this three way split release and the recent and forthcomin' works of other UK acts such as Trenchhead, Amputated, Embryonic Depravity, Twitch of the Death Nerve (and Gravaged [RIP]) are the unmistakable sound of the Brootal (especially Slammin') Death style being duly wrestled out of their chubby paws! Of course, the UK has always had such Gore-fuelled mainstays as Gorerotted and Desecration to keep the boys across the pond on their toes, but over the past year, we seem to have had an abundant crop of bands truly harnessin' the power of the slam, the chug, the gravity blast and, of course, the reeee!
Crepitation exemplify modern-day Brutal Death Metal, but infect it with a very wry sense o' humour indeed. In their five carefully arranged compositions, the band have incorporated just about everything that makes the genre so effin' addictive; instantly jiggable riffs, impeccable kit-abuse, amusing intros and preposterous vokill theatrics, all tightly bundled in a nice pile o' irresistible slamulated chugulence! The riffs themselves are very catchy and easy to get into, ‘cos like many Brootal Slammin' Death bands, Crepitation have obviously penned their material with the mosh-pit in mind, placin' less emphasis on the more blast-heavy segments in order to delight the punters with dozens of fun slam-downs. The drummin' is clever and effective enough to fortify each number without suffocatin' it with inappropriately placed double-kicks or surplus ‘gravities'. Rather than beatin' a lot of the fun out of their tunes via toneless bland-slam and insipid vokill-burble like a fair few of their US counterparts, such as Waking the Cadaver, Artery Eruption, Guttural Engorgement/ Hematuria (and Devourment of course), the band add lots o' uplifting riffs and highly entertainin' vokills. The latter are the most significant humour element of the material, performed by two vokillists, who push Brutal Death vokills to the very peak of parody. One performs quick-fire, high pitched diaphragmal workouts ‘n' laryngeal acrobatics, backed by the moist, splattery inhalations of his associate, their comical pastiche-patterns comin' across like Brootal gimmick-limericks. The song-title "Effervescent Oesophagus Pumps" sums up this style of singing. Satisfyingly, the intros often correspond with the song-titles, the most appropriate and entertaining of these being the jingle from the classick television ad for I Love Horses and Horse Riding magazine. Like a lot of Brootal Death these days, some o' the song titles are lovely ‘n' vivid in their prolixity.
In their biography, the band cite the Texan and Colombian scenes as their main inspiration, whilst their myspace.com influences list contains every Brootal Death band you could care to think of (except Deaden and Splattered Cadaver [oh and Brutus too]). They're clearly not averse to Aversion to Life and the whole band have Amputated Genitals, but to this reviewer, Crepitation sound like a cross ‘tween Japanese slam-fun like Vomit Remnants or Disconformity and the jolly-chug of Debodified, the Dislimb/Dyscrasia split and the second Lust of Decay album. The vokills sound like a hodgepodge of Necrotorture, Sikfuk and recent Mincing Fury, underpinned by a sloshy mix o' Retch ‘n' CBT. When the vokills take centre-stage durin' the slug-chugs, they often erupt in quick-fire, gob-wibblin' chop-wobbles, a bit like those in Screaming Afterbirth and Lividity, or early Pigsty.
The production is good ‘n' cohesive, with a crisp overall kit-sound, warm ‘n' filthy guitar and plenty of vokill clarity, with a smatterin' of bass-drops just for fun, although I would've liked the low pitched oral-flatulence a bit higher in the mix.
With their hugely entertaining take on a threadbare blueprint, Crepitation breath warm gusts o' fun into the withered, putrescent Brootal Death cadaver! <8.8>
Kastrated have quite similar ideas, but are ever so slightly less concerned with actin' the goat. Their material is tumescent with thick, viscous, segmented chugment carried by some enormously dexterous drumming, plastered with all kinds of superb vokill secretions! Jus' like Crepitation, they've sutured together the choicest cuts o' contemporary Brutal Death using British-made catgut, but add some nice technical stitches here ‘n' there. The songs are shrewdly structured ‘n' memorable, with tempos well balanced ‘tween ragin' flurry and crawlin' sloth, with further variety supplied by the remarkable vokill range. The drummin' adds much substance to the material, galvanisin' the slam with concreteous rhythm, highlighting their technical side with intricate decorations thru nimble stickwork. Through one mouth, the vokills do the same job (and more) than both Crepitation gobs, switchin' wildly from hoarse ‘n' guttural bellows, sticky mucoid bawls, horrid squawks and, of course, simultaneous intra-diaphragmal squashment, esophageal self-strangulation and vokill-cord stridulation. There's an apt ‘n' funny clip here too, from The Mighty Boosh. For me, comedy intros achieve much more than dreary horror-clips or crap porno-samples, so I do hope Brootal Death/Grind bands soon start dissectin' the works of Chris Morris or Grant Naylor! Song themes are simplistic, conservin' verbosity for the title of the whole work.
Big blobs o' Despondency emit a strong stench o' Pyaemia, and maybe a little Malignancy too, but with all the ultra-brain-dead parts supplemented with Deeds of Flesh-esque bits o' concentrated, claustrophobic complexity. The vokills are a combination of numerous styles, displayin' an ‘all-over the gaff' kind of diversity comparable to that of Mortal Decay, Psycroptic and perhaps Intervalle Bizarre, whilst the drummin' bears similarities to Defeated Sanity or maybe even a bit of good ol' Gorguts, but without the smugness.
Like that o' precedin' act, this stuff was mixed ‘n' mastered at 6dB studios by the same engineer, so the production job has been executed proficiently and astutely. It captures near enough every ounce of their weighty chug-heft with a representation that also offers a crystalline kit-sound, face-flayin' vokill track and nice, rounded bass freqs, the latter highlighted with generous bass-drops.
This is slam-suffused, tech-peppered UK Brutal Death with an expert rhythm section and consummate vokills. Splendid. <8.9>
Ingested wrap up the spilt, split guts o' this split with their brand of ‘Gut Stompin' Brutal Death' which, in the manner of Kastrated, balances out a Brootal Death diet of down-to-earth, greasy-spoon slams with a few handfuls o' beneficial technical(ish) supplements.
Their path to total Brootal Death euphoria is paved with chunky chug-cobbles and glistenin' pinched harmonics, littered with blast and smeared end to end with faecal vokill droppings. Ingested and Crepitation share two of the same musicians, but the stick ‘n' skin work is slightly different here, addin' a little more tightly-packed, blast-heaped claustrophobia to suit the slight complex edge and to colour the more monochrome mong-slams. The guitars make excessive use of the piercin' harmonic squall, addin' lethal barbs to the riff-wires that wrap round your face ‘n' burrow into yer temples, bufferin' some o' the chugs with rapid trillment. Whenever the slams slot into place, they do so with nihilistic crushment, paintin' over all the chug-colours with shades o' decay-grey, givin' their material greater belligerence than the jesters in Kastrated and the Crep-clowns.
Ingested have a similar obliterative Brootal attack to that of Disavowed, She Lay Gutted by Disgorge and any given Brodequin, buffered with the stomp-a-long chuggle ‘n' squeak of classick Deaden. The vokills combine the husky gutturals of Mutilated in Minutes-era Gorerotted with the high pterosaur squeals of Von Young, enhanced with a splash of Retch-isms and some Heinous Killings offal-chokes. As mentioned above, the drummin' is more involved than on the Crepitation tracks, interspersin' a blastulated Chad Walls/Jon Engman type performance with some nifty Jordan Varela-style fill-tricks.
Although produced to a similar high level of clarity ‘n' clout on the same premises as the other two acts, the Ingested side does suffer from one or two minor studio-gaffes. The bass-drops are strategically placed, but muffle the rest of the band whenever they pop up, whilst the vokill track is marred by a coarse sound, oversaturated in sticky reverb, with a little of the haphazard mixin' that marred the vox on debut releases by Waco Jesus and Lapidate.
This is robust set o' Brutal Death which encroaches upon your personal space with a pugnacious, gurnin' expression, wielding a knobbly club! <8.7>
This is an excellent three-way compilation, which I recommend to all fans of Brutal Death Metal, especially those with a sense of humour required to appreciate such farcical Brootality. The wonderful packaging ‘n' art direction deserves a mention too, because it contains an artwork, photo and liner notes for each band, with a nice, blood-soaked British-Isles cover for the whole release. Labels who release multi-way splits can often overlook this, but I think it's important to have a complete package.
In summary, this is trio of bands who, between them, have obviously spent hours listenin' to towerin' piles of Brootal Death CDs, become disgruntled with a British scene devoid of this particular style of Extreme Metal, then uttered ‘Fuck this!' in unison, afore stompin' off to meet like-minded friends in order to enjoy a slam ‘n' a ree. Buy immediately!
UK readers: Watch out for Mark out of Crepitation and his other band, Amputated, who are due to appear on the BBC3 programme ‘Singing with the Enemy,' in which the group must collaborate musically with a female vocal group! I think this is from the same producers of ‘Living with the Enemy' which once saw Sermon of Hypocrisy frontman Diesektor takin' his mum along on tour with UK black art tarts, Cradle of Filth! The advertisements are being broadcast already. ‘Every woman we sing about is just a piece of meat!' Oh Mr. Pearce, you rude man! Tee-hee! These ladies will probably turn out to be huge fans of El Duce and GG Allin.
September 8th, 2007
    
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