Review by Carl on January 8, 2024.

Brutal death metal apparantly has a lot in common with my love life, there's a lot of one-man action going on. And Catatonic Profanation is another name in that long long list of down-tuned lone ra(n)gers, so let's give this one a spin, shall we?

What at first seems to be another cookie cutter example of your typical slamming death metal offering, turns into something a bit more surprising. For a while, at least. Spliced between the usual staccato percussive style of guitar playing that is so prevalent in slam, there are these Incantation/Profanatica style dark death metal riffs, which sounds absolutely great together with the slamming parts, adding additional bite to the band's sound. It's an approach that gives tracks like "Neurological Emaciation", "Contorted Perception" and "Tyrannical Oppression" an awesome brutal and menacing vibe, but is unfortunately largely absent from the rest of the album , which is somewhat of a shame, really. Sticking doggedly to the tried and tested formula of slamming death for most part, sole member Anthony plows through the usuals such as the low guttural vocals, pinch harmonics and heavy slamming parts alternating with fast grinding velocity, without many surprises thrown in. For most part, it is all kept simple and straight forward, while the whole is delivered with loads of caveman stomp, not unlike acts such as Kraanium, Vulvectomy or Devour the Unborn. Not that there's much wrong with that, I've stated before that I like my slamming death as primitive as possible, but it's a shame that the combination with the dark death metal riffing isn't explored more, leaving me with the nagging feeling that there was more in the can.

The production is not stellar, but also not horrible either. The focus is notably on the down-tuned guitars and vocals, while being underpinned by a tightly programmed, yet very digital and lifeless sounding drum computer. It's a production that sounds pretty compressed and murky, knocking off the sharp edges of the music, while making the whole sound just that bit too nice for a release that puts the focus on blunt force and punishing stomp.

It's a definite pity that Catatonic Profanation didn't explore further into that area of heavy and dark riffing, fleshing out the combination with the slamming parts, because they really had something going there, for sure. However, I will state that I still enjoy this album quite a bit, even if it's not the most original of its kind, and despite the somewhat iffy production. It has its good ideas present for sure, and I can surely appreciate the caveman stomp of the slamming stuff well enough.

And let's face it, flawed can be nice too, isn't it?

Rating: 7 out of 10