Rating: 5.9

Country: Brazil

Genre: Goregrind

Record Label: Black Hole Productions

Release Date: 2008

Track list:
1.They Like to Play with Their Food
2.Watch Out... Here Comes Derek
3.Gruesome Party
4.Special Pus Sauce
5.I'm with the Guts
6.Kicking a Decapitated Torso in the Balls
7.Brains are Spoon Food
8.Homo Sapiens Low-calories Delicacies
9.Sapiens Burger
10.Vomitous Delicious
11.Suck my Spinning Steel
12.We, the Food
13.Kaihoro
14.Traditional CCD Fetus in Jelly Jar
15.Trash Nausea Total
16.Stick all the Pieces in a Plastic Bag

Band Website: Flesh Grinder

Flesh Grinder - Crumb's Crunchy Delights Organization

FAMG Necromaniak - Guitar, Vocals
RAM The Butcher - Bass, Vocals
DRH Khil - Drums

Over the past decade and a half, good ol' Flesh Grinder've been oozin' a steady output of Gore, stitchin' slobbery Goregrind and serrated Death Metal together, splashin' the blastin' goreified bashery and buzzsaw fuzz with some malevolent mortuary (un)melodies, then givin' the thing that unmistakable Brazilian feel and appearance by riddlin' it with oft impenetrable medical themes and bodybaggin' it in horrid cover art. Time now for the fifth full length from this long-runnin' Brazilian Splatter/Gore outfit, and it seems they've dropped the explicitly pathological facts and fancies and taken a new, sillier approach; Crumb's Crunchy Delights Organization is a concept album inspired by Peter Jackson's classick splattercheeze overload Bad Taste! Hurrah! As for the audio material, they can still pen a crackin' tune, ‘cos this had me noddin' along avidly throughout. As regular readers may've noted, their last disc, Coroner's Inquest Suit, was pitilessly bashed on DC (in two separate reviews!), so let's hope I don't end up givin' this a similar floggin'!

Like on previous outings, the tunes are straightforward, easily digested and fairly enjoyable; this Goregrind cadaver seems baggier and much more slackened, a condition brought about by their slapdash arrangements. Still, the performance adds a very loose and leisurely feel to their material, with occasionally enough corrosive bite to keep things from becomin' too mindless and/or daft. Despite the casual grindin' attitude, they manage to keep the stuff together in a way that makes it charmin' and warm, but sometimes in an absent-minded, clunky fashion which gives it a trite mechanical feel. The guitarwork sounds very much like Derek's chainsaw, buzzin' and whirrin' all over the place throughout, with much throttlin' of a smatterin' o' mangled chords, simplistic pinch harmonic placement, heavily palm muted blockage and mid-paced chugmarch mindlessness. The scruffy yet solid drummin' has enough bluster keep the hectic bits rattlin' forward at a breakneck lick, and then cuts back on the cranium fracturin' blast at the right moment in order to allow lovely contrast with the slower, more writhin' sections. However, the drums seem to lock themselves into a couple o' rudimentary beats much of the time, then thump away at them for the entire song, which removes a lot o' punch from the already basic progressions. The vox are in a traditional Goregrind style; sharp, acerbic glottal gurgle-shrieks vs. repulsive pitchshifted gargles, tradin' off the fun lyrics to venomous effect. Some of the higher stuff sounds a bit strained on a few tracks though. Unfortunately, a lot of the songs have some very similar simple bits, often arranged in such basic patterns that the tunes jellify into blobby repetition, with hasty codas that sound awkward. They sort of make up for that with a smatterin' of irresistible ear-pleasin' bits, where a part gets introduced by the rhythm section only, then an aggressive slide or scrape brings in a lovely, flowin' riff, or a sudden splat of solowork, but it's not quite enough to save it from descendin' into a sloppy heap. After sixteen tracks it's just a pile of similar ideas, riffs etc fuzzied, tangled up and bobbin' around in a muddy puddle. But! Near the end, they bring in slow, menacin' beat at the moment you think the disc's finished; the kind of threatenin' rhythm that suggests there's some wonderful riff-packed finale ahead, but unfortunately they just plough into a trudgy, sludgified sequence for a bit, bringin' their work to rather a mediocre conclusion.

Needless to say, but I have to otherwise it'd just be an incomplete sentence, this and anything like it is incontrovertibly inspired by classick Carcass, Repulsion and Impetigo, but its scattered with segments of old Brazilian band Gore, perhaps even some Hideous Mangleus or something. And old Pungent Stench. Buried beneath the Goregrindin' filth, there's also some dusty old British Death Metal and Grind from the 90s; somethin' like classick Cancer crossed with Bolt Thrower circa In Battle … But with said bits and bobs lobbed together, they can end up soundin' like some below par Gore like Intumescence, Castrado Cadaver or Oxidised Razor or someone. Some of this also reminded me of a less-good version of that last Putrescence album Fatal White Pustules upon Septic Organs, what with its clattery style and raggedy delivery.

The production is exactly the kind of thing I would've requested had I composed this work; all instruments readily available to the ear, but with red-hot distortion, in-yer-face percussion and raucous vox. It doesn't gleam, glisten or glint in the slightest, but for me, a layer o' polish on Goregrind material penned and performed in this kind o' muddled fashion would rob it of its fetid spirit. The Bad Taste theme is good fun, and entertainin' to read along with, what with every tune bein' based around favourite scenes from the film, my personal favourites bein' "Suck my Spinnin' Steel" and "Sapiens Burger"! As you can imagine, the disc takes a nice palette o' samples from the film, which still raise a chuckle. Must dig out that vintage motion picture again soon! Naturally, the artwork is also based around the feature, and although Lord Crumb, his colleagues and their dismembered, half-chewed victims are rendered fairly rubbishly, they're not without their charms.

If you're a loyal Flesh Grinder follower/take a keen interest in this style then you'll probably get into a fair few bits of this, but might lose interest durin' some o' the tracks. You'll know right away that this is nothin' original or ground-smashin' in the slightest, but if you fancy a spot of brain-spoonin' Goregrind, and also happen to be a fan of Jackson 's debut flick, then you might fancy a listen, but probably not a purchase. Some good bits.

August 25th, 2008