Exulcerate - Remnants Of A Cannibalistic Debauchery - 2005 - Comatose Music

Exulcerate's solitary full-length thus far is really a pretty exemplary cut of brutal death metal with varying degrees of old-school death metal influence. In some of the riffs, I can hear nice tones akin to Entombed, Morgoth and other European stalwarts, as well as of course the Cannibal Corpse influence! The riff writing is really solid and could even please some old-school metalheads who haven't been able to understand "slam" in any real capacity. The vocals aren't SUPER guttural, but they are deep vociferations of hatred and brutality. Oh, and I can't neglect to mention that BRILLIANTLY over the top cover art...goddamn! The spine of the disc claims that the band plays "alcohol driven cannibalistic death metal" and I can see it to an extent. There are plenty of whiskey-soaked riffs and breaks here, and the vocals I can definitely see being uttered after a few bottles of Jack!

However, I HAVE to hand it to these guys because despite claiming to be "alcohol driven," they certainly seem like they have their shit together. Tight slam rhythms and fast blasty breaks really make this long (47 minutes!! Holy fuck!) album seem more compact and powerful with great variety. Some excellent soloing really peeks out during songs like "Feed Us, Kill Her", "Post Mortem Disfigurement"(which even features an early-Amorphis-esque dark verse riff after said lead section...awesome!) and "Terminated Foetal Debris", making me wonder "why don't they do this more?" but I guess these guys understand the saying "too much of a good thing makes said good thing sound like absolute shit" so I'll forgive them and hope they fix this on the next LP.

As I just stated up there, this is a long-playing brutal death album with a variety of different styles. It's not just "Texas slam death" and it's not just "modern death metal with old-school influences," it's definitely a beast all its own. I definitely look forward to hearing more by these guys. A welcome surprise from a band I honestly didn't expect to sound "different"!