Rating: 7.7

Country: Italy

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Permeated Records

Track list:
1. Intro
2. Abortifacient Whore Lobotomizer
3. Molesting Vomited Decapitation
4. Zombie Oral Sex
5. Concious In Rigor Mortis
6. Fermented Entrails
7. Necrophiliac Limitations
8. Convulsive Incestuous Devourment
9. Pursue The Suicidal Breed

Band Website: Putridity

Putridity - Mental Prolapse Induces Necrophilism

Ciccio - Guitar, Vocals
Davide - Drums, Back vocals
Alessandro - Bass
Paolo - Vocals

I was kindly furnished with this by my friend Edd, with whom I performed in Brutal Death/Grind band Gravaged (you all ought to listen to his radio show on xpressionfm.com on Sundays from 10pm, playin' Death/Grind/Black/Doom/Stoner etc), cos he'd ended up with two copies of it. Not to be confused with the Polish act, Putridity are an Italian trio who play writhin', slamulated Brutal Death that uses head skewerin' guitars, gut-puncturin' gutturals and concretous drumwork to deliver this whirrin', squirlin' mass of lethal metallic scraps. You'll find deft lil' technical flashes, disjointed crunch, loomin' slam-lurch, a couple o' very slow segments and all out blastin' shred-passages twisted and woven into this, givin' it a rather volatile feel and an essence of structural diversity that has it towerin' above the rest of the tattered, jun-jun junk strewn about the Brootal Death field at the moment.

While the delivery is mouthwateringly tight and of a bone-poweringly mechanized nature, the songwritin' is quite lively and animated, leadin' yer ears thru a host of different slam-plateaus and blast-terrains; one moment they'll be judderin' along a snare-filled minefield or pinch-harmonic thickets, the next they could be wadin' through gunmetal chug-mud or gettin' swallowed by slurpin' slam-quicksand. Most of their phrases are wrenched out only a couple of times afore movin' onto the next, usually extinguishin' a lurchin' chug-pattern with full throttle rattle, afore smoothin' things out again with a slam-segue, then obliteratin' it with further high-speed hi-jinx, thus creatin' a grotesque, multi-headed beast. The hefty, bonce-thumpin' drumwork brings much bulky flesh and tough sinew to the riff-frame, the highly robust percussion, coupled with rounded, poundin' basslines, strengthens and straightens the string-squiggle. The vox are slobbered at low frequencies throughout, usually operatin' at a gruff and chalky gurn-tone, but also frequently descendin' into deep underwater tunnels of total guttural-pondlife.

Some of this isn't entirely dissimilar to fellow Italians Septycal Gorge [review], which is hardly surprisin' really seein' as they share their drummer as well as their prominent structural complexities. Mind you, I don't think Putridity are quite as Disgorge(US)-obsessed as their Italian brethren, cos the songwritin' on this is more along the lines of Psalms of the Moribund by Defeated Sanity, 'cos it has that frantic riff grab-bagment off-set by measured slam sensibility. As with .Moribund, there are one or two pesky stock-chugs, but they're wisely incapacitated by jagular, serrated riffage whenever they pop up. This stuff is also a bit akin to something very recent like the latest Flesh Consumed if it had slightly less emphasis upon flashy axe-antics, then adds the blastin' horror of someone such as Enmity and perhaps a few chunks o' Abysmal Torment, then adds much slamulated brawn by chewin' on a Pyaemia-muscle and spittin' half-eaten bits of it all over the record, resultin' in excessive blast-bluster and pinched string tangle buffered by some warm chug accessibility and that slam to-fade satisfaction.

Sound? Adequate to muddy; the guitar has a crushin' quality but it's riddled with nigglin' fizziness in the low freqs, which dampens the heavily palm-muted sections and ends up shovin' all the higher stuff right to the top, along with the ferocious vox sound, which seem comfortable in the mix durin' the more hectic stuff, but seem to sit prominently atop the thing durin' the more slamular bits. The drum sound adds much beef but bits of it seem a bit stunted; the kicks pound right into yer solar plexus and the solid tom tone adds plenty of momentum, but the snare oft has a clinical, triggery clatter and the cymbals are nothin' less than flaccid.

There you have it then. Brutal Death Metal with a good balance of highly noddable catchy bits and spirallin' technical sections, each bein' lopped into small, bite-size gobbets, but then squashed together into a hideous, disorientating pile that may be a bit of a challenge to digest immediately, but it definitely worth it. If you feel that you can't breathe for all ham-fisted glam-slam-jam-bands lazily chuggin' about the place these days and hanker after a more diversely constructed piece o' work, then Putridity ought to keep you occupied for at least a little while.

May 30th, 2008