Review by Elijah on January 10, 2020.

I'm a brutal death fanatic, I've heard tons of new brutal death metal in 2019, but Ecchymosis is different, they got a style that's slightly away from the usual stuff. Ecchymosis is a brutal death metal band that relies mainly and purely on being as raw as possible, further increasing the heaviness to their desire and whatnot. The band also throws in some slam stuff onto the album, which is a sweet little cherry on top.

I remember early last year when I wasn't into slam/bdm I was trying out a bunch of random slam albums in similar artists sections, this band was there and I played this album, my immediate reaction was "What the absolute fuck is this? Jesus fuck this is just excruciating! The snare is the worst thing about it, how can anyone tolerate this?!?" It's funny how much the times have changed, and this stuff is now what I'm into and what I love. Aside from that story, let’s get on the album. When you start playing it you're immediately greeted by multiple layers of meaty wet gutturals, then the music comes in. You get immediate nasty vox, the next thing to pop up right in your face is that damn snare. THAT SNARE. One huge reason why slam has become popular and famous among certain groups is because of the snare. That clankiness, cheap-sounding, turned-off snare, and this band certainty focuses on that, that's the biggest standout of this entire album, the extremely loud clanky snare; it never goes away, it's always there, everywhere. It's not bad at all, I'm just stating obvious facts. But I'll mention it again later in the review.

The guitars are pretty down-tuned and extremely heavy, even a single chug is enough to prove that this is indeed, heavy. I'm not really all that great at talking about guitars, but pretty much all I have to say about this album is that the guitars are heavy, there's many chugs, some slams, and some fast picking and slightly intricate parts too. The guitar work stands up pretty well, and again proves the album and band to be generally different and stand out a little more from others. Very great guitar work, it's heavy, grinding, just the total package. The song structures are all the same, but all the songs open up differently for the most part. Aside from the opening parts of songs every song has a riff that's followed by a beat at the end of it, over and over. The only song that's memorable off the top of your head is 'Putrified Mass Sodomy Woundflux', but that doesn’t mean the album is bad, it doesn't mean that at all. That's just how bdm/slam usually is. Every track on this album is awesome.

The vocal work is magnificent. It's an extremely wet, guttural, disgusting, gurgling pile of beauty. It sounds like something choking on something oily and slimy, trying hard to push whatever it is out it's throat, but it can’t; so, it's just sitting there in agony desperately trying to get it out. It's again, disgusting and meaty, which makes it absolutely perfect. The vocals don't sound exactly like anybody else that comes to mind; so yeah; props to this man for spitting out this sick nasty throat work.

Although it's not important (to me at least) except for the music, the artwork and the name of the album and songs can’t go unnoticed, obviously. The artwork is absolutely beautiful, some of the best I've ever seen, I absolutely love it. Aberrant Amusement in Cadaveric Vomitplay is an awesome name for an album, it's just cool and adds more flavor. The song titles are just as similar and lengthy and detailed as well as the lyrics. Love it.

Now back to what I was saying about the snare drum. It's awesome, it's ideal, it's what's perfect for an album like this. But that doesn't mean it's ALWAYS perfect or ALWAYS enjoyable. Although the snare is great, sometimes it can be pretty damn annoying. Mainly when gravity blasting/hyperblasting/speed rolling. When the drummer does gravity blasting (or whatever technique he does) it's excruciating to the ear about 90% of the time, especially if you aren’t in the mood. It sounds like a spoon flailing around everywhere inside of a cheap glass cup, not really enjoyable. That's pretty much my only complaint about this album, which is why I docked it 2 points.

Just to clarify, the snare isn't shitty, just only at the parts where he gravity blasts on, the drums are just unpleasant sometimes. I love the snare, but yeah.

In conclusion, this is totally a solid brutal death album. It sort of has its own style; doing its own thing. It's different, it's interesting, it's very pleasurable when you get into it. Very solid slab of disgusting brutal death metal, 24 minutes of rancid brutality in your eardrums. These guys are coming out with a new full-length album in 2020, I wonder what stuff Ecchymosis will put out this time!

Rating: 9.8 out of 10