Rating: 7.3

Country: Sweden

Release Date: 2008

Record Label: Bizarre Leprous

Track list:
1. Face Laceration
2. Stench Of Flesh
3. Throat Unsafe From A Pair Of Scissors
4. Instant Spastic Regurgitation
5. Spliced Girls
6. Circular Holes In The Cranial Structure
7. Corporeal Manifestation
8. By My Blade (Re-recorded)
9. Degrading Malice
10. Restless Dreams Of Atrocities

Total playing time 24:00

Band Website: Splattered Mermaids

Splattered Mermaids - Stench of Flesh

Johan Bergström - Vocals
Johan Hallberg - Guitar
Martin Schönherr - Drums
Martin Eklöv - Bass

Splattered Mermaids happen to be a new Swedish Old Sc—no wait, Brutal Death metal band boasting of ex-members of Deranged and Visceral Bleeding. Wasting no time on a patience-testing intro, the band gets into gear straightaway with a swaying blast-ridden first song that will leave a horizontal trail of abrasions on your forehead. If the jackhammer-style drumming initiated in the first song doesn't awaken deadened memories of Deranged, the following song “Stench of Flesh” definitely will, what with its suspended-gigantic-axe-oscillating hooks. Next up is “Throat Unsafe from a Pair of Scissors”, a frenzied song with catchy stutter-blastgrooves that will remind you of Visceral Bleeding's debut, Remnants of Deprivation, before leading you into a twangy Cryptopsy part replete with a high-pitched Lord Worm squeal. As you can see or rather read or eventually make out by dream interpretation, even though the Deranged and Visceral Bleeding ex-members in the band happen to be a drummer and a bassist respectively, somehow their presence has sizeably influenced the sound of Splattered Mermaids. And though that strips the band of its faint little chance at striking originality, the borrowed influences are arguably quite healthy – with their country's affinity for melodic music, there's no doubt they could've done far worse.

“Instant Spastic Regurgitation” showcases Splattered Remains's ability to write killer and ultracatchy riffs of their own, momentarily anyway, before they reaffirm their mastery of hooks which are juxtaposed between well-paced sections. Despite the restrictions they have created for themselves with a tight derived sound, they have done well to make most of their short songs fairly distinguishable from each other. For instance, “Circular Holes in the Cranial Structure” features a delicately created melodic riff segment in the middle, and “Corporeal Manifestation” opens with an ominous pupil-widening bass intro (again reminiscent of the glory days of dark mid-era Deranged) before allowing Dying Fetus influences to take control over the song which is carried well into the next song as well, with of course the Deranged parts overseeing damage control. Last song “Restless Dreams of Atrocities” is of an altogether different nature, bearing huge emotion- laden riffs not to mention a quiet solemn outro, ending this bloody mayhem on an apologetic note almost.

Johan here might share the same name but his vocals are not half as hoarse as the Deranged vocalist, thus the feel that is exuded is not nearly the same; his squealed, semi-muffled, processed-sounding vokills are comparable to Svencho's of Aborted and lend to the music a sick pathological edge than a full, portentous and demented one. There are occasions when I felt thicker or more guttural vocals would have added more weight to the music but there are moments where he stands out on his own thanks to his stylistic glass-gargling delivery. Production is too clear and crisp, effective if not out-and-out powerful, and allows the listeners to be suitably slashed and splattered.

Stench of Flesh is about short breathless songs that are racy, airtight and lethal, done in a tried and tested manner. That's pretty fucking good enough I reckon, and if you're a fan of this style of brutal music you ought to give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.

June 18th, 2008