Alienation Mental - Four Years... ...Time Full of Brutality (Burning Dogma Records; 2004)

Although the Czech Republic has given the metal world outstanding bands in all of metal's various subgenres, it is probably best known for its grindcore. I'm only a casual fan of grindcore and this blog doesn't cover it, but from what I can tell Czech grind is a powerful force within the scene. Besides all the internationally famous bands there is the amazing Obscene Extreme Fest which features primarily grind.

The Czech band Alienation Mental are firmly entrenched in their homeland's tradition of excellent grindcore but cross over enough into brutal death that it should pique the interest of many of the readers here. As the title suggests, Four Years... ...Time Full of Brutality is a compilation of Alienation Mental's material from the four year period of 1999 to 2003. This consists of their sides of three split CDs and some live tracks.

This first and most important thing to know about Alienation Mental is that they are incredibly heavy. Their sound is viscerally satisfying. Deep bass, loud drums, and extreme guttural vocals all combine to give their studio material a huge, thick sound. Unfortunately their live material doesn't reflect this much, but a good live recording is a lot to expect from an underground deathgrind band.

Riffwise Alienation Mental reminds me a lot of a faster Poppy Seed Grinder. This makes sense considering that both bands come from the same scene and share members. Alienation Mental basically play fast, grinding blasts most of the time with catchy grooves added in every once in a while to keep things interesting. These grooves aren't your typical slam grooves and I wouldn't call Alienation Mental a slam band, but it's the same idea and I think that if you are a fan of breakdowns and groove in your death metal you will like this. Highlights include "Abnormal Idea Get Off Myself" and a cover of Carcass' song "Corporeal Jigsore Quandary".

Four Years... ...Time Full of Brutality is occasionally inconsistent and disjointed, which is often a problem of compilations, but overall this is a really heavy and enjoyable album. If you are a fan of deathgrind or grindcore or don't mind a lot of grind influence in your brutal death metal I think Alienation Mental is a worth checking out.

Note: Although I have not listened to it, my sources tell me that Alienation Mental's most recent full length Psychopathicolorspectrum is a style shift towards nu-metal. Probably not the best place to start with them.

Slam of the Rising Sun

Inspired by a good friend of mine taking a trip to Tokyo this summer, I've decided to do an in depth look at the Japanese brutal death metal scene. In my opinion Japan has tons of good brutal bands and it's hard to argue that there is a better country for this kind of metal in Asia. If you're at all interested in brutal death metal Japan should not be overlooked. Here are some good ones to start with.

Vomit Remnants: One of the oldest bands on the scene, Vomit Remnants is also one of the best. They describe themselves as "Hyper-Groove" which is actually fairly accurate. Vomit Remnants is all about the groove and remind me a lot of Dying Fetus and Soils of Fate with touches of Suffocation. All of their stuff is great and insanely catchy and most of it is available on their discography CD called Supreme Vehemence. The only thing that bothers me about this band is that they have not released anything in four years.

Infernal Revulsion: This band is relatively new but their debut full length Devastate Under Hallucination shows they know what they are doing. It's incredibly heavy and the slam breakdowns are immense. If you want to be absolutely crushed by a slam death record, check out Infernal Revulsion. It also features a common trait of Japanese bands - great vocals. Not sure what makes the Japanese such good gurglers and growlers, but it's almost a guarantee that a Japanese brutal death band will have awesome vocals. Infernal Revulsion has a second full length on the way called Dead But Breathing.












Infernal Revulsion standing near a scary fence

Gorevent: I can't figure out how to pronounce this band's name (Gore - Vent? Gor - Event?). Either way they rule. They fall on the simpler side of things and don't complicate things with technicality or melodic riffs. They just straight slam. This plus a thick and heavy production on their album Abnormal Exaggeration reminds me of Abominable Putridity. Again great vocals.













Members of Gorevent plus the coolest old dude ever


Disconformity: Another band that needs to release more material, Disconformity have only given us one EP and two demos. Disconformity manage to combine slam's catchiness with a slightly higher than average amount of technicality. Their style is very heavy not unlike countrymen Infernal Revulsion. It's hard to judge this band based on so little material, but what they have put out shows great potential.

Blunt Force Trauma: Despite having some humorous Engrish song titles in their discography (Inconsistency Politics and Vomit Christmas being my favorites), Blunt Force Trauma are emerging as a good band and managed to hold their own on a split with the excellent and relatively more experienced Katalepsy. Blunt Force Trauma favor abrupt, stomping slam as opposed to smooth grooves. They remind me of Vulvectomy in this way. I'm hoping for a full length from these guys sometimes soon.














Blunt Force Trauma slamming in the woods



Jenovavirus: Probably the most obscure band I've talked about and sadly the only one that is no longer active, Jenovavirus are also the most unique. They're just weird. They throw in synthesizers, multi-layered vocals and weird atmosphere. If you are a Dripping fan (and you should be) Jenovavirus is definitely worth checking out. Unfortunately for us they only recorded one demo.

The Best Live Slam Courtesy of Youtube

Unfortunately it is pretty rare for most people to see slam and brutal death metal live. Most of the bands aren't able to tour extensively and unless you live in a big city you're pretty much out of luck. The brutal death scene is very active and alive right now, and thanks to the internet we can hear and buy studio releases from all around the world. However nothing beats the energy and intensity of live music. Thanks to the magic of youtube though, we can get pretty close. I've picked out a couple videos that I think slams fans will enjoy.

Soils of Fate - Versus ft. Ruben Rosas of Devourment. Recorded at the first Maryland Deathfest in 2003.


Devourment - Choking on Bile ft. Wayne Knupp (RIP)


Human Mastication - Groteque Mastication of Putrid Innards


Katelepsy - Number of Death (13)

New Sevared Signings/New Insidious Decrepancy Album

A lot of things are going on in the world of brutal death metal this summer. Luckily for you I'm jobless this year and so likely will have plenty of time to meander around the internet and post about new bands and new releases.

I'll start with one that I'm sure many people are aware of and that everyone should be excited about. Insidious Decrepancy, the one man TXDM band created by the prolific Shawn Whitaker, will be releasing its third album Extirpating Omniscient Certitude on July 31st via the excellent label Brutal Bands. I'll admit I haven't Insidious Decrepancy's first album, but the Inerrancy of Profanation is great and I'm looking forward to this release.

http://www.myspace.com/insidiousdecrepancy


Another upcoming release to look forward to is The Void Of Un-Existence by the Portuguese band Decrepidemic. Decrepidemic have recently been signed to Sevared Records. I couldn't find an exact release date but it appears that it's coming out in the next month or so. I'd actually never heard of this band until just recently but according to metal-archives they've been around since 2002. I listened to the songs up on their myspace and they're pretty good. Decrepidemic play fairly standard tech/brutal death metal, but thankfully keep it brutal enough to be enjoyable. I'd like to see how they sound on a full album without myspace destroying the quality, but my initial reaction is positive.

http://www.myspace.com/decrepidemic


Staying in the same part of the world, Sevared Records have also announced the signing of Spanish slam band Extirpating the Infected. I also listened to these guys on myspace and liked what I heard. They seem to be a new band but they've recorded an mCD called Vaginal Saw Entorturement and have members of the Spanish deathgrind band Kevlar Skin. Extirpating the Infected have a very good slow groove thing happening which sounds very moshable. No word yet on Sevared is putting out Vaginal Saw Entorturement, but on first listen
Extirpating the Infected sounds pretty good.

http://www.myspace.com/extirpatingtheinfected

Awaiting The Autopsy - Couldn't Tell The Bodies Apart (Amputated Vein Records; 2009)

Awaiting the Autopsy is a relatively new 3-piece slam outfit from Germany, which doesn't have very many slam bands to its name (that are notable anyway...this band features a member of Poostew and Corporectomy who we once reviewed here; there's also Despondency who neither Nick or I are really fans of). In any case, I recall reading about their early demo and I think taking a listen to their earlier Myspace stuff and it was way too "deathcore" for me to really get into it, or at least enjoy it enough to review it here. This seems to be a whole new beast, and I'm glad they stepped up their game.

Whether I was just imagining the discrepancy between their old stuff and this or not, this is some fucking killer slam with a patently dark and sinister edge. From the wonderfully evocative album title (and art by none other than Mike at Visual Darkness) to the very well used dissonant chords placed between slams, to the Guttural Secrete-esque creepy non-ironic dark acoustic track near the end of the album, this is one hell of a mature release. Also, Phlegeton of Human Mincer and Wormed does wonders for their credibility by doing awesome guest vocals on "Slowmotion Slide Down the Impalement Stake" (kudos to the gruesome and cool song title too).

The first song actually shows traces of deathcore days past, though, and at first it was almost enough for me to yell at the people who recommended this to me. However, by "Backyard Autopsy" all fears are quelled by a surprisingly creative driving rhythmic slam and perfect drum programming (excellent kick drum fills abound, this is always an awesome way to program). My main gripe with the drum programming Christian utilizes, however, lies in the distinctly flat and lame/powerless snare sound. It could have been much more powerful and resonant so I'm not sure why this sample was opted for. Regardless, the actual technical proficiency of the programming is nothing to scoff at as most of the fills are absolutely great.

"Feet First Woodchopper Suicide" features a very Saprogenic riff at 1:54 (that is to say, it is sinister, dark, tremolo picked and pretty damn awesome) which carries the song a great deal until it is thrown out for somewhat of an old-school death riff played in the rhythmically-metered slam style. Oh, and fear not about pinch harmonic abuse. ATA know how to incorporate them well. They're used pretty tastefully and they almost never sound stupid. This is good as apparently a lot of slam bands nowadays are acting like they just learned what harmonics are. A well done job on the non-slam riffing and harmonic-usage side of this release, I must say. Also, "Wormpaste" has some crazy sweeping right in the beginning and sort of a semi-lead/solo in the middle with the same motif. Kind of fun, I must admit, and a good songwriting step.

The vocals are a layered guttural inhale and there are some very good exhales, even somewhat akin to Majewski on the new Devourment. One of the big selling points here, apparently, is female vocalist Ulrike doing high pitched desparate screams, which are akin to the ones Dripping sometimes used. The one thing that could improve them (and make them even more Dripping-like) is to blend them in more so they aren't just appearing in breakdown holes, etc. Anyway, these vocals set ATA apart from the pack, which is good in a scene where everyone does basically the same thing, vocally.

If you're looking for a pretty "dark" slam album with some experimental tendencies and more brutalizing breakdowns than you can shake a stick at (and if you don't mind a tiny bit of deathcore chugging in your slam), you should absolutely check this out. Will likely make the top 10 of my slam list this year.

Human Rejection - Decrepit to Insanity (Pathologically Explicit Recordings; 2009)

Human Rejection are a band that's amassed a relatively sizable fan base since their debut album Torture of Decimation hit the scene in 2007. I think their success has to do with their ability to write incredibly catchy slams combined with a smooth production which made Torture very easy and fun to listen to. Human Rejection have now released their second album Decrepit to Insanity. This album sees Human Rejection lose some of their accessibility, but they make up for it by increasing the brutality. The Human Rejection that people (including myself) loved is still here, but it has evolved.

Human Rejection play a lot of very groovy and bouncy slams and complement with faster, more melodic riffs. The beginning of Suffocate Castration is an example of a groovy riff that just pulls you in. It's a pretty standard formula for slam, but Human Rejection are very good at making it memorable and engaging. There is a uniqueness and an energy to Human Rejection that is not often found slam and its part of why I like them so much. Decrepit to Insanity is not quite as catchy as its predecessor but sounds more brutal to me. The riffs are a little denser and the vocalist Alex has decided to go with high gutturals as opposed to pig squeals.

Decrepit to Insanity has also added a lot of stop-start riffs to the mix. I think these work really well and fit right in with the rest of Human Rejection's repertoire of riffs. I know there is a lot of skepticism in the scene about the use of stop-start riffs because of their association with hardcore, but the ones on this album are pure slam death. They are basically good slams, just with some open space added into them. In this way I am reminded of Human Mastication's great album Grotesque Mastication Of Putrid Innards (review). What I like about this style is that it allows the other instruments to be showcased. A common motif is for the guitars to play a slam and then stop, have the drums play a fill and then to slam again. The end of the song Infernal Hostility is a great example of this.

I don't know if I can say this is a better album than Torture of Decimation, but I also wouldn't say it's worse. Decrepit to Insanity is not as accessible or initially exciting as Torture of Decimation, but at the same time I think there's a little more to it. If this is your first experience with Human Rejection I would recommend getting both albums as they are both high quality.

New Flesh Consumed EP out on Sevared now!

Cali-slammers Flesh Consumed have a new EP out with a really fucking cool cover, on everyone's favorite US brutal label, Sevared Records. The new song available on their Myspace is full of semi-melodic riffs and heavy production, focusing on thick kick drum and good use of cymbals. The verses with chunky riffing and blasts outright slay and the slower parts aren't really "slammy" but they are pretty predatory and lethal sounding in their own right. Flesh Consumed may be going more "tech-death" it sounds like, but it still sounds brutal as fuck and I dig the non-generic gore type aesthetic they're going for. Metal needs more machines; it only makes sense...and if you throw gore in the mix, that works too. Buy or die!!

Abacinate - A King's Thirst For The Frosty Brew (Epitomite Productions; 2009)

Thanks to Barrett of Sevared Records for giving us this promo along with many others

A few years ago the big trend in metal was Gothenburg style melodeath mixed with hardcore. Today that trend seems to have shifted slightly to just pure death metal mixed with hardcore. Whatever your opinion on deathcore is, there is a lot of it coming out right now. Abacinate, from the great state of New Jersey, is definitely part of this movement.

A King's Thirst For The Frosty Brew is a promo released by the band for an apparent upcoming full length. The first three songs on this promo are new original songs. The last song is a cover of Sepultura's Nomad. There is also an acoustic part and a pretty bad rap song included in that last song. Abacinate have a couple other releases under their belt including a 2008 full length entitled Ruination.

Abacinate basically play standard brutal death metal mixed with hardcore breakdowns. A few years ago this might've been cool, but now it seems overdone. I don't mind deathcore and I'm a pretty big fan of hardcore in general, but I tend to view deathcore (and most fusion genres for that matter) as a watered down version of two genres that I like. To Abacinate's credit they're good musicians and the riffs they've written are pretty good. The brutal death parts are interesting and the hardcore parts are heavy and moshworthy. They even added a gang shout which I thought was cool.

However, just like I feel about most deathcore, I can't really get into this. Although the various parts of the music are good, I find myself wanting to listen to other bands when listening to this. I'd rather just listen to a brutal death metal band or a hardcore band, not one that only gives me half of each.

If you like deathcore give Abacinate a try. They're definitely good at what they do and have some cool ideas. If you hate the deathcore trend stay away.

Amputated Genitals + Vulvectomy updates

Dan (and the rest of AmpGen) attended Maryland Deathfest this year...Nick and I quickly spoke to him about the upcoming album by the band (and he gave us free AmpGen keychains!) and he informed us that the album should be out in 3 weeks time. So that's a mid-June release, hopefully. He also informed us that, indeed, his label (Gore and Blood Prod.) is putting it out, and Barrett/Sevared will be distributing it in the US. Support Colombian sickness and buy this when it comes out!

As for Vulvectomy, we talked to Barrett about them...he informed us that there are 3 more songs the guys have to record, then they'll be finalizing the whole package. The album should be out later this year, perhaps Fall or early Winter (November?). This is likely to be a mindblowingly great album, as Italo-slam has been upping the ante lately with a lot of great bands...stay tuned!

Devourment - Unleash the Carnivore (Brutal Bands; 2009)

Well, well, well...look who's finally back! The finest (and arguably the first "real" progenitors) of slam death metal bands is back with a new album, long overdue since Butcher the Weak back in 2005. I, along with Nick, picked this album up straight from Ruben and Eric at Maryland Deathfest this past weekend, and it's been on heavy rotation since, from the car ride back to on my headphones in my CD drive as I write this.

"Unleash the Carnivores" begins with some quick drum fills before launching into pure slam mode, as Devourment tends to do very often. One thing I liked less about BTW was the impression I got that the spazzy/blasting sections were more numerous and not enough of the slams were catchy to me. Another big point of contention I had with BTW was the stupidly loud production, which was too clippy and "extreme" but really just sounded muddy (not to mention the drums were way too dominating; a lot of the blast sections just sound like pure drums)...one more thing; BTW has pinch harmonics...this doesn't. I think harmonics are way overused in slam, and it's good to see the main dudes leave this lame trend behind at least for a while. Due to these things, I think I can safely say that this new album is better, to me, than BTW was. The chorus in "Unleash the Carnivores" features some of Majewski's best vocals lines ever, and the second instance of it leads into yet another unparalleled slam section by the true masters. What's strange is, Captain Piss (aka Chris Andrews, who was interviewed for this very blog) wrote this track and "Incitement to Mass Murder". This proves that Chris has a ton of talent, as these songs are excellently done and fit well with the stuff written by Ruben and Mike. "Abomination Unseen" features a bridge section with an atonal open-chord guitar part, which is somewhat of a new thing, and makes the song feel a bit more open and, dare I say it, "epic." More on this feeling later, though.

One weird thing here is that it sounds like Captain Piss is a little buried or under-represented in the mix. I can hear his bass motoring along, but it lacks punch and sounds a little quiet. Chris sounds great in the live venue, though, as this past weekend's MDF performance for Devourment can attest. The slam around 3:20 into this second track has a very awesome triplet double bass pattern, which is really effective and something else I don't really recall Devourment ever doing. Eric's drumming overall is completely awesome, even though his toms sound a bit odd (kind of cool, though, if you ask me; very flavorful and tastefully done); he's tight as hell and his fills in various tracks are really just beyond what should be expected from drumming in slam.

"Fed to the Pigs" is regarded as somewhat of the "single" off the new album; it was released prior to the rest of the album to fans for a taster of what the album is like, they made shirts (which I have one of, thanks to MDF being well stocked in this department) with the title as text, and they've played it live both times I've seen them. The first section of the song is a bit awkward, with kind of a shuffling drum/riff combo, but once it gets going, you see where this section was heading; Devourment gets a little more "driving" and aims for a traditional death metal groove during the first verse, which really gets the blood pumping and works surprisingly well. The bass/drums only next section leading into the big first slam (though not the biggest or slowest in the song, of course; this happens around 1:35 and has an absolutely awesome riff where the last couple notes sort of "hang", which makes it feel more powerful and rhythmic) is ingenious, I wish Devourment did this in a slower fashion sometimes. The next few slams don't particularly stand out, but the structure of the song is always very strong and there are more surprises to come.

"Incitement to Mass Murder" is the second and final song on the album written by Captain Piss, and it's really strong. It features some of the most prominent blast beats and snare-rolls Devourment is known for, and Majewski's lyrics are actually rather mature and don't sound as silly as usual (we of course still love the silly stuff, and there are some tracks that had lyrics that literally made me crack up; well done Mike!). The most memorable part is of course the insanely heavy slam section with the "SOUUUUUUUL" refrain...I'm telling you, Chris is a great writer. If he wrote that part into the song, he's really bringing a lot to the band and pushing them forwards, which is impressive as hell. The following slam section verges on "funeral slam" territory but never quite reaches it, featuring more excellent triplets and snare rolls by Park, who, by now, has proven his immense talent and worth as a drummer for this band.

"Crucify the Impure" has more prominent blastbeats and some more driving ones with interesting cymbal use, especially the ride...the first minute of this shows Park using his kit to some of the best potential he has yet. Mike's first vocal lines are driving, like we saw in "Fed to the Pigs", and this song will likely become a live staple, with lots of people shouting or growling along to the first verse and chorus. This song lacks memorable slams, I feel, (even though the main breakdown is stupidly heavy; it does kind of have zero transition and feels forced) but it's still an excellent example of how Devourment's songwriting prowess is somehow becoming a bit more expansive and "progressive" which I absolutely cannot fault. They have to stay ahead of the curve, after all...can't have newer bands outdoing the masters. Regardless, this is probably my candidate for "weakest" song but...Devourment don't really have anything totally weak, just less good than usual. Typical from a blog focusing on the music scene that is following what these guys created, but I'm being serious.

We've all heard "Deflesh the Abducted"...at least those among us who got the excellent 4-way "Limb Splitter" split (which also showed the incredible potential of Sarcolytic, by the way), and it's a bit upgraded with production to fit this album. It was good when we heard it on that split, and it's still good now, with awesomely dumb lyrics and the signature big groove that makes Devourment so lovable. It even has one of those spazzy blast parts where no one knows what the fuck is going on, just that it kicks ass (credit to Noah/Noktorn for this phrase, I love it). The section with the hi-hat rolls in the breakdown is just incredible, and the re-appearance of a new breakdown after a previous one, with kind of an awesome straight up death metal riff (done Devourment style) is phenomenal. Many, many broken necks will accompany this song live.

By this point, your neck is likely already broken, to be fair, but "Over Her Dead Body" continues the mayhem with another signature growling groove, with an interesting rhythmic break at around 40 seconds in which might make you wonder who you're listening to. In fact, this song probably has the most absurd and screwy structure of them all. The breakdown has almost no transition yet feels totally natural, the spastic parts are weirdly effective despite seeming random, and Eric's splash cymbal mashing sounds completely effective. Brain damage from headbanging so much? Possibly, but I can't get enough of this.

"Field of the Impaled"...here it is...the most epic Devourment song ever. You thought "Postmortal Coprophagia" had an insane structure full of slams beyond imagination? Well...yeah, it does. It is still my favorite single Devourment song, but this really takes their new "direction" to the next level. You want slams? You've got them, and you've got a lot. The pacing is really excellent, it never quite sounds too forced or rushed, as was the case with the also-longer-than-usual "Postmortal"...the slow swaying part with bass and drums is exactly what I want from a transition, and the schizophrenic blasting brings this to a place Devourment needs to go more often, Mike bellowing guttural spew above the whirlwind of snare. The completely abrupt "BLAM" chord at 3:45 is probably the coolest fucking thing ever, and totally hits the spot this late in the album. Continuing on, we have an absolutely excellent rhythm that confuses and satisfies with an odd time signature and a solid groove. You wanted an epic fucking ending? You're getting it, and you're getting it good. The same slam repeated for a good minute and a half with awesome fills from Park the whole way out...what a great farewell.

When this comes out, you buy or fucking die. If you don't own this by June 26th or a few weeks after (I'll allow a small buffer zone), you are dead to me.