Defleshuary - Zombie Plague, Rampant Horror - 2007 - Homicide Watch Records

Since we all know Pennsylvanian death metal is so hard to find (Nick and I could really only think of a few other acts, namely Hamilton Fish and Inhuman Dissiliency), these slammers, fronted by the extremely nice and charitable Rick Shirk on guitars/vocals, have come to show the world how brutal PA can be. With this, their debut "professional" outing into the world of metal (they've had previous small distribution EPs and demos before), the dudes in Defleshuary hack and chop through 8 songs in around 22 minutes of chunky, slamming, and sometimes ridiculously catchy brutality.

For instance, in opener "Wax Sarcophagus," you get hit with a really awesome chunky section with Rick's excellent death growl fronting everything. The snare tone is kind of annoying, but all of the other drums sound pretty good. Panned cymbals really add to the depth of the recording, and well timed ride hits like in the beginning section of "Hunger Spirit" really nail what the drummer is going for...flavorful and tasteful brutal drumming that doesn't try to be overzealous, nor does it really sit back and relax. In this sense, I'm drawing comparisons to bands like Vomit The Soul and Goretrade, both of which have excellent drumming that doesn't go to either extreme too often.

Though this is only a combination of their first EP and 2 new tracks, everything blends together really well and I end up not minding at all despite having heard the 6 original songs before a year ago. The production is crisp, tight, and impressively thick for such a small label release. On the new tracks, though, we get to a kind of next-level technical slam assault with early Swedish almost-D-beats and great catchy riffs and slams. Given its short length, this is one of those things I can pretty much throw on any time, similar to Human Rejection's debut album, which I could also compare this to musically given the nice inclusion of semi-unique moments of bizarre technicality, intensely tight musicianship, and over-the-top shades of greatness.

Thanks to Rick and the guys for sending Nick and I not only a copy of this EP, but also for the fucking sick shirts...support these guys, they're attempting a renaissance of East Coast American slam, and I hugely wish that would happen...until next album...