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Review by Carl on September 24, 2023.
I'm really torn on this one, you know. On the one hand, this is just one 36 minute long song that seemingly consists out of nothing more than an endless succession of slams, gutturals and squeals, and that's about all. On the other hand, I like my slamming death metal to be as caveman and demented as possible, and now that I have gotten it, I should not feel the need to complain, you know.
This stuff is as heavy as a cruise ship filled with baking lard, while carrying a sold-out gathering of 70's Elvis Presley lookalikes. Utterly devoid of any musical frills whatsoever, this lumbering beast of a release lurches forth, with as a sole objective causing severe blunt force trauma.
And you bet your sweet behind that this shit is heavy as fuck! Not heavy, but HEAVY, like a morbidly obese Devourment would sound. The guitars are downtuned in such a way that the guitarist has to take the elevator to the basement to change his strings. Drenched in fuzzed-out distortion, both bass and guitar are totally crushing throughout, making the slamming parts sound immense. Underpinned by a mechanical, somewhat lifeless sounding drum machine, these form the basis for the two vocalists to ply their trade. One provides the vomitous gutturals, while the other utilizes a kind of squealing, that here and there does get on my nerves a bit. There are almost no fast parts present throughout, save for some goregrind-styled 'oompa' type of rhythms and an occasional acceleration towards the end of the album. Bolstered by a just that bit too digital production, this is a hulking piece of granite, that sure is a crushing piece of brutal slam for sure.
While I sure can appreciate the reckless heaviness present on this album, I also have to admit that it also is a pretty monotonous offering at times. When that "Whoa, that's heavy!" feeling subsides, the realization starts to creep up on you that it all sounds pretty same-y. The band does try to alleviate this somewhat with the aforementioned change of rhythms, but this can't avoid getting a sense of over-saturation in the end. And while I'm ticking off the stuff that I didn't feel: my cd has a bonus track of a German spoken sample underscored by a slamming part that does not really add anything, and I could have easily have done without.
Looking at this album from a distance, I'd say that I can most certainly appreciate the sheer intensity and pulverizing heaviness of the whole, but in the end I'd have to conclude that a tad more variety would've been a very welcome something. Still, this is not a bad release, because it oozes copious amounts of caveman stomp, sure to please all the slamophiliacs out there, for sure.
In short: has the thought ever crept up on you that acts such as Disnormality, Acranius or Epicardiectomy are too subtle at what they do, then this is the release for you!
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
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