Flesh Consumed - Mutilate Decapitate Eviscerate - 2008 - Sevared Records

Sevared is off to a good start this year, releasing this new California technical slam outfit's debut album after a few EP/demo releases. Barrett has a great ear for brutality, as evinced by his constantly good picks for releases, and of course this is no different. Thick and downtuned chunky slam riffing combined with technical flourishes a-la last year's Inveracity album definitely brings this one up a little bit into a slightly higher tier than what is expected from California slam nowadays. Having found Condemned pretty overrated, this is a breath of fresh air, combining an almost Japanese sound similar to Infernal Revulsion and the first Infected Malignity album with the technical US edge influencing lots of foreign bands nowadays also. Some awesome solos peek out over the rubble caused by the devastating riffs and rhythms.

I would describe this album primarily as "fun", its playful and idiosyncratic hyper-speed drumming and almost-funny vocal histrionics really putting the icing on the proverbial cake. The funnest part would definitely come into play as the lightning-fast technical breaks full of scales/arpeggios galore, which just make the listener go "...what the fuck, did they really just do that?". Indeed, this album heavily deviates from the typical Devourment style slam, which can be dangerous but also very rewarding. However, it seems like these guys have done it well with class and style and chose a great label to work with, and that is rare and pretty awesome to see.

Songwriting-wise, there are a lot of good slam breakdowns infused among the blasting fury, but overall, fans of the new Abominable Putridity and that kind of thing might be kind of disappointed by the lack of pure groove rhythms. With its wacky solo tone and frankly insane sense of rhythmic technicality, this is an album for fans of Hour Of Penance, the new Decrepit Birth and Odious Mortem as well as fans of Infernal Revulsion and Defeated Sanity who just need a change (and more fucking solos!).