Provocation - Towards Total Annhilation (Mutilated Records; 2008)

When you think of themes of brutal death metal, the things that usually come to mind are the various parts of human anatomy and how they can removed preferably in the most painful/criminally sexual way possible. You don't think of things like history, left wing politics, or social commentary. Leave that stuff to Punk right?

Wrong. At least according to Provocation who come from southern Germany but are (understandably) quite angry with George W. Bush and the right wing of politics in general and use their music as a vehicle to express this anger. Not that you can hear single lyric throughout the album, but the booklet is a nice read. Songs like Poor in Resources, High in Conflict or Perverse World Domination read almost like a history lecture, which, as a history student and a left-leaning person myself, I tend to like. It's not the most eloquent stuff around but it isn't shit either.

In the end though, it's the music that really matters, so let's talk about that. The riffing style on this album reminds me of the obtuse, heavy slams of Vulvectomy, mixed with spiraling, slightly melodic Californian sounding riffs. This mix works pretty well and leads to interesting songs that you can't pin down to a really particular regional style and they certainly don't sound like a clone. Can't really say I was blown away, but there were some good moments on here for fans of the genre.

The vocals and rhythm section on this album however left something to be desired. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't really that good. It's hard to say anything in particular was bad, it just felt off. The production was fine but didn't help either. This is the band's first album though so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but clearly there is room for improvement here.

So kudos to Provocation for trying some new things, both riff wise and lyric wise, but there is work to be done before they release a truly great album. If you're looking for some slam with a little uniqueness you could do worse, but you could also do better. (hint: keep an eye out for our upcoming review of the new Human Mincer album!)

Corporectomy - Within The Weak And The Wounded (Sevared Records; 2008)

Corporectomy are a new technical brutal death band signed to Sevared Records who have just released this little EP of blasting and slamming madness recently. I dig it, it's a little like Decaying Form with a ton more structure and tighter playing, maybe with the drumming of Defeated Sanity on the first album or something.  The vocals aren't guttural enough and are more of a deep bark, but it's not really a problem, ESPECIALLY when the dual low/screamed vocals erupt viciously and rabidly through the mix.  Every now and then there are some interesting sustained amelodic chords that sort of just hang around and get warped into creepy twisting riffs, sort of constructed in a Californian way (I've seen people say this band is very US sounding, so I'll just agree here).  There are no DISTINCT moments of pure Devourment worship so it's not quite Texas-y, and it's not quite New York enough, nor is it totally Californian sounding, it's not raw enough to be Midwest style USDM so...I'm at a loss to say exactly what this IS, regionally speaking, even though I make the concession that is "United States sounding."  Whatever, I'm just yearning for categorization here.  If you like your slam built on weird frilly riffs with precise yet unfocused song structures and not-quite-burping vocals, be my guest and check this out.  It's not breaking any new ground, but solid it is, and solid is something we like here.

P.S. automatic point deduction for retarded opening sample!  STOP DOING THIS!!