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Country: USA / Philippines / Malaysia Release Date: 2008 Record Label: Reverb Productions Track list:
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Jesus Corpus / Innards Decay / Pus Vomit - 3 Way Brutality
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| Jesus Corpus Jack Riedel Mike Zumbrunnen Chris Wilson |
Innards Decay Samad - Guitars Midon - Guitars A.P. Filthgrinder - Drums Amal - Vocals Wan - Bass |
Pus Vomit Marco - vocals Ryan - drums Louie - guitar |
What this unimaginatively titled three way split then? It's a grotesque
compilation featurin' demo material from a trio of extremely fresh Brutal
Death/Grind viruses, one from the States, another from Malaysia and a third
from the Philippines. We've heard United States bands in the style time and
again of course, so I often find it very interesting to hear it interpreted
by bands from countries with much smaller scenes than those in Europe and
the US; thus the two Southern Asian bands appearin' on this initially drew
me into the second two bands on this here split. Geographical locations
aside, are any of 'em any good?
Missouri three-piece Jesus Corpus play a sort of mini-epic style of lead-heavy, stop/start Brutal Death Metal; it has big imposin' hugment and more than enough pig-pen vox, but highlights it all with a variety of progressions, vocal sounds and even melodies, comin' across as far more diverse than I'd imagined. A kind of miniature supergroup, Jesus Corpus features members and contributors from masked dafties Troglodyte, fellow Missouri act Disinterment, Kansas riff-machine Unmerciful and haemmorrhoid sufferers, Life at Zero, among others.
As you might've guessed, the six string is the key to the structural adornment here; despite their average song length bein' about a minute and a bit, the guitarwork manages to squeeze a nice array of cyclic crushment segments and mangled harmonies into each one, complimentin' it with a multiplicity of melodious motifs. The kit underpins the thing in a dense, robust manner, whilst the vox accompanies it with a broad range of styles, goin' from coarse guttural snarls, to mid-pitched glottal sneers, with fairly frequent porcine tongue-coil, along with a few unexpected bits of spoken-word type growlin'. The song-themes are degenerate silliness, with titles such as "My Dog Wouldn't Fuck You But I Would" and "Jerking on a Turd" belying the intricate songwritin' and accomplished musicianship within each number, which I found to be quite an effective contrast. Overall, it's well arranged and delivered with tightness and conviction, but my attention did wander off on my first few listens, but it does take a small bit of getting into.
Stylistically, this is like a more elaborate incarnation of Troglodyte, takin' a lot of bits of that stuff, in particular the truculent heads-down crushment, then tartin' it up to the nines with lots of gleamin' leadwork and rich vokill variety. Elsewhere you might hear splashes of Solidification and maybe a small bit of older Viral Load, plus perhaps a few elements of the associated acts mentioned above.
Production is very good, especially considerin' this is demo material on a split; scything yet rounded guitar sound, concrete rhythm section and vivid vox. Mind you, after a quick browse round their links and stuff, it seems like they have their own personal studio set up, probably stuffed with all kinds o' lovely mikes, dynamic processors, FX units and whatnot.
Brutal Death Metal with a lot of modern melodic and technical flourishes.
Innards Decay also play a fairly elaborate style of Brutal Death, but with very little semblance of melody, and a heavier emphasis upon pulsin' rhythms and disorientatin' riffs, with structural fragmentation and dissonant disjointment. Their tunes rumble along, movin' through quite unpredictable progressions of fast, squirly riff entanglement capped with palm-muted flurry crush, then towards pinch harmonic infested chugulation afore a big old dirty slam ascends from the seethin' mess for a short while to get you noddin' like a novelty dog perched on a parcel tray. Though it's not instantly accessible, this stuff doesn't seek to completely baffle you throughout, 'cos the technical edge decorates rather than obfuscates, and I could often feel a bit of an old skool Death Metal atmosphere descend upon me durin' a few of the tunes.
Guitar: while there are slammy bits dotted about the place, they're either found in an optimum song position, or decorated with some rifftastic flashiness and a fair bit of ominous anomalousness, along with a few unconventional chug signatures, compositional jumblement and shrewd splashes of solo-string dynamics, all preventin' the tunes from descendin' into a greyish slampit cesspool.
Underneath: The drums clang and clatter along at rather a high ol' lick, festoonin' the tunes with relentless blastment and kick thuddery.
Atop: the vox spew guttural sewage rangin' from very dry and coarse roars and tunnel-faced windiness.
Production: Fizzy to flimsy.
Of course, they're named after a track from Butchered at Birth so you can expect a fair few Cannibal Corpse-isms on here. Mind you, I think it's rather more aligned with their later works than the disc from which their namesake tune appears on, perhaps a more scythin', technical one like Gallery of Suicide or something, supplemented with pint-sized bits of Vital Remains and maybe some baby-Immolation, updated with a smatterin' of Brootal sections akin to other Southeastern Asian stuff, such as Stench of Your Perversion by defunct Indonesian act, Bloody Gore, or possibly the more recent works of their Malaysian counterparts, Cardiac Necropsy and maybe the less mindless moments of Singapore perverts, Flesh Disgorged. What with this comminglin' of modern day slamulence with older skool groove and the technical values of both, Innards Decay remind me of the second Putrid Pile disc, but only if Mr. LaCanne had become heavy-handed with his tempo knob, and forgot to do his pterodactyl vox.
Quite good.
Last off, we've got the bluntest, rattliest, most in-yer-face band of the three, and that's Pus Vomit from the Phillipines, who play straightforward US Brutal Death in an amphetemized caveman style. You've got thoroughly unsubtle, melody-free riff-bludgeon, over-the-top percussive clatter and very hoarse, wheezy gutturals.
Extremely downtuned, oft palm-muted guitars make repetitive, braindead sounds, usually movin' between breakneck strum-judder and pinched harmonic laced riff figures for a while, afore pilin' into a standard slam segment, playin' that a couple of times before immediately repeatin' it at a slower, chuggier tempo, reverting from coal powered to steam powered loco-slam, then clumsily jumpin' back into one of the previous measures, keepin' the total 'notes' within each phrase to a bare minimum. Drums click, clump, clang and clank along hastily, their expeditious delivery sometimes exceedin' the riff-tempo and makin' the riffs difficult to follow until the slam arrives, with a heavy reliance upon clacky blastin' that further suffocates the tunes. Vox are delivered in a vociferous manner via bone-dry, choky-hoarse guttural respirations and add a stream of consciousness quality to the work, but this sometimes has 'em wanderin' out of synchrony with the riffage a bit, causin' further song dishevelment.
Stylistically, this stuff is rife with demo-grade Brodequin and Devourment, takin' the scattered clatter of Brod and the stock-slam of Dev, further ruffin' it up with the bargain-basement Brootality of Cranial Impalement by Disgorge, minus Way's subterranean vox. Alongside slamular similarities to fellow Philippines chug-thugs Down from the Wound, their faster sections remind me of the more haphazard end of the Colombian scene, perhaps Wormeaten, with their typical chugulence, messy vox and boxy production of Japanese three-piece, Rest in Gore.
I won't criticise them any more that than, 'cos they look rather mean, so I wouldn't want them knockin' my door down then bashin' my physiognomy into my keyboard, so I'll just say that this is quag-standard Brootal Death that'll hopefully improve on future releases!
A Brutal Death split with three bands arranged in descending order of skill
and creativity. Havin' a technical, widdle-inclined act appear with lumberin',
belligerent one, then slottin' another with material that falls somewhere
between the two neatly in between the two results in a varied but rather
inessential release. If you like Brutal Death and fancy samplin' the works
of three new bands each displayin' a different interpretation of the style
(individual only in the context of the split though, what with everyone
havin' heard all of this countless times afore), then it's worth a quick
listen.
June 26th, 2008
    
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