Lacerator - Lessun Urlo Nell'Ombra

Antonio Susca - Voice
Marco Zirondelli - Bass
Macro Lambertini - Guitar
Luca Sammartino - Guitar
Riccardo Grechi - Drums

After bein' treated to the latest Caustic offerin', I've been lucky enough to receive another course o' vine-ripened European Death Metal, and this time its Lacerater, a Death/Grind quintet from Italy. Home of course to highly-addictive coffee, lovely cuisine, pulchritudinous womenfolk ‘n' nice architecture, the nation is also home to a few of my much loved bands, such as Cripple Bastards [review], Insane Assholes, Cadaveric Crematorium [review], Septycal Gorge [review], Corpsefucking Art, Stench o' Dismemberment and, er, Linea 77 and (cough) Lacuna Coil. But this is Lacerater, and they're here to abrade your face off with their debut recordin'.

Accordin' to the press-release that arrived packaged with my copy o' Nessun Urlo Nell'Ombra, the band take influences from Death Metal, Grindcore and Hardcore, balanced effectively within their compositions to give us equal measures of each. We get the threatenin' riff-portent ‘n' shimmerin' solo-work of Death Metal, the lively rhythms ‘n' heads-down crushery o' Grind, the catchy chug-ups ‘n' cyclical slam-battery o' Brutal Death and the pit-ready pugnaciousness of Hardcore, all narrated by some impassioned vokill vocifery that skips deftly ‘tween the methods of each. In swappin' back and forth from bubbly rhythmic bounciness ‘n' malicious, whirrin' riff-menace, the four cleverly constructed tunes keep your ears on their toes throughout. One moment I felt like I was boundin' around the place with slamulent abandon at a smelly Metal night, sloppin' a plastic pint pot o' insipid, unlovingly pulled ale all down my Regurgitate t-shirt, the next I found myself suddenly bein' hauled half-alive into the mortuary by cacklin' pathologists brandishin' all manner of razor sharp, whirlin' drill-like devices, where my freezer drawer ultimately turned out to be a false door back into the club! Excellent dynamics here.

The methodical deployment of alternatin' hateful cadence and hedonistic pit-beatz reminds me of classick Internal Bleeding, but with a generous dash o' Viral Load [review] venom and a dab o' Putrid Pile fun. ‘Cos they fuse down-to-earth, crunch-infused pit-passages together with a spiraling' technical element, the band also comes across as a cross ‘tween somethin' like Diatribes era Napalm Death ‘n' maybe Cannibal Corpse circa Gallery o' Suicide. Elsewhere, the sleek ‘n' streamlined segments segues remind me of the self titled album by ex-Mallcore monarch, Bradley ‘Dez' Fafara and his ersatz-Extreme Metal outfit, Devil Driver (can I say that?), whilst the more Hardcore-inflected Brootal bits bring something like Dehumanized to mind, as well as a smudge o' Mucopus.

On the whole, the production is as clean as a whistle, with a poundin', torso-swathin' drumkit sound complete with thumpin' kicks ‘n' a snappy snare, whilst the guitar has a hard, dry, concretous sound that simply smashes your head off. An exceptional job, but brighter cymbals next time please, see me at the end.

It may be because I'm a light-weight reviewer well into his fourth hop-based beverage and umpteenth conical, paper-clad herbal tube of the evenin', but I thoroughly enjoyed this release! This is a solid, cunningly crafted set of songs that certainly bodes well for a full length album, so keep an eye out for the slithery Lacerater logo!

Very good!

January 10th, 2008