Review by Carl on November 10, 2024.

It looked like it had been coming for some years now, but now I finally dare to make the claim that it has arrived, the renaissance of death/grind. Galvanizer, Meat Spreader, Heinous (US), and Fluids have been hinting at it in the not-so-distant past, but with the recent success of Pharmacist, Viscera Infest, Concrete Winds, and Lipoma in mind, I guess that it's finally happening. Personally, I could not be happier about it, I kinda had it with all these 80's cosplayers and pretentious arty-farty death metal acts like Blood Incantation, and a return to blast beat driven, heavy as balls sonic carnage without unnecessary frills sounds exactly what the doctor ordered.

And our ordered dose of medicine for today comes in the form of US purveyors of slime 'n' grime Hemorrhoid. They deliver a downtuned combination of goregrind bile and primitive death metal mania, practically doused in a filthy soundmix, all being delivered in a suitably frenzied way. It's a mixture that sees the band landing somewhere between Regurgitate, Dysentery (GER), Carcass, and the early releases of Grave/Corpse and General Surgery, and Hemorrhoid delivers it in glorious fashion. The guitars slice through the music in chainsaw fashion while a gruff, purulent voice blubbers all manners of putridity over them, with a pinch of occasional pitched vocals added. Charged up by heavy, strangulating bass and a percussionist who switches between blast velocity, skank thrashings, and pummeling goregrind groove, the band delivers the music in an energetic, almost manic way, at times veering off in bouts of delicious aural chaos, and this in a highly pleasant way. These guys understand the art of controlled madness very well, and they channel it in an absolutely convincing manner in their simple yet highly effective music. Pinch into this concoction a few searing guitar leads and a touch of doom metal ('Raw Materials Of Decay'), and BAM, grinding death metal bliss. All over my face.

The production adds a lot to the dirty atmosphere that pervades this grime-spattered jewel, keeping it all true to form and mostly devoid of contemporary trappings. The guitars sound gritty and gruff, although just that more of volume in the mix wouldn't have hurt. In its totality, the production combines clarity, balance, and grit in an almost perfect manner, and best of all, it does this without sacrificing none of that diseased spirit that truly great grinding death metal is supposed to emanate. This is menacing stuff, alright.

This band perhaps isn't the most unique or original crew in the game, but dammit, they deliver the goods in a more than decent manner. The riffs are sickening, the songs are short and sharp, and the sound is filthy and vile, while the whole thing oozes grime and menace throughout. I really hope that the resurgence of this kind of music keeps going, and I also hope the same for Hemorrhoid. We need more bands and albums like this because let's face it: life would be boring without excellent grinding death metal like this.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10