Review by Michael on February 14, 2025.

I don't know if it was just some pure coincidence that I got a terrible flu right after getting the new Cryptic Brood or if Necrotic Flesh Bacteria somehow infected me with that shit. All I know is that I felt quite the way the third full-length of the Germans sound.

Just like on the previous albums the guys offer us some really sick death metal, peppered with some abhorrent vocals and disgusting inhuman crooked guitar sounds. Maybe describing it as some sort of Autopsy when they are having a really bad day would be adequate for this feast of bacteria. Here everything reeks of putrefaction (sorry for the cheap pun).

Alone the vocals are so super sick, the guys from Wolfsburg are screaming and groaning and rattling through the nine tracks that you might get the feeling that they are soon going to die because of asphyxiation or some deadly infection that is slowly eating the flesh.

What they really have done on that album in an exquisite way are the tempo changes. All of a sudden, they break out of the Autopsy-like doomy parts to explode (like in "Oozing Pox" for example. You can see all the cute little viruses flying around in a room just after a struggling shaking human took his last breath and his lungs exploded to release them into the fresh air.). Apart from that Autopsy-worship there are also some hidden Carcasses (mostly from their first album) to find if you listen closely enough.

Sometimes the bass lines sound like some good old crunchy crust punk bands back from the early 90s like Doom and co and I guess that is what Cryptic Brood exactly wanted to have. Also the sound of the album is quite anachronistic and low-fi in some cases but this gives Necrotic Flesh Bacteria this certain nostalgic touch. Not the nostalgic way with some tea and cake but just like that brain and this squirrel with the open chest in formaldehyde at my school for tea time. Delicious!!!

But in some songs there are also some catchier parts (that still don't sound right to the ears though) which lightens up this massive wall of dissonant biological nightmares and that are a little bit closer to some emm… regular death metal (in comparison to Cryptic Brood you might even say radio compatible death metal). But these parts are as rare as some good soccer matches from Borussia Dortmund these days, so I'd say there is still 99% sickability on that album.

The music is really super morbid, a really nightmarish trip through the realms of death and decay and while you are listening to it, you might start feeling sick. Really sick. But if you don't like the typical run-of-the-mill death metal you will find your private little place here to lie down until you have bedsore and your flesh is dripping from blood and wound water. Check the album, I have to go to the pharmacy right now, I think I'm becoming ill again!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10