Decrepidemic - The Void of Un-Existence (Sevared Records; 2009)

The Void of Un-Existence is the first album from Portuguese brutal/tech death metal band Decrepidemic but from listening to it you would think it was their third or fourth. Although Decrepidemic has existed since 2002, The Void of Un-Existence is their only release other than a couple of demos. Judging from from the high level of musicianship and expert song writing found on this album the years before this album's release were not wasted.

Decrepidemic's style is very Californian in nature, prompting one commenter here to compare them to Decrepit Birth. This is pretty much accurate as Decrepidemic use the swift, cutting, technical riffing and fast blasting so often found in CADM. I'd also compare them to fellow Europeans Inveracity and Blasphemer, but those bands themselves also share similarities with the CADM scene. Other than Pathology however, I can't think of much coming from California right now that is better than Decrepidemic. They really know how to make the fast riffing interesting and not just an opaque, guitar-noodling mass. They also know exactly when to take you from those fast, interesting riffs to crushing slam abysses. Assisted by a thick, yet audible production (which is what bands of this style should try to get in my opinion) the slower slams on this album are extremely good. Also thrown are quick chugging interludes and competent guttural vocals that round out the heaviness of the album.

As I mentioned earlier The Void of Un-Existence sounds like it was created by band which knows exactly what it wants to do and has the skills to do it, a relative rarity for debut albums. I bought this album with modest expectations but came away from it very impressed. The Void of Un-Existence is high quality and a must for CADM/tech-brutal fans.

Extirpating the Infected - Vaginal Saw Entorturement (Sevared Records; 2009)

Vaginal Saw Entorturement is an EP and the first official release from the Spanish band Extirpating the Infected. Considering that every Spanish brutal death album I have heard prior to this has had Phlegeton on vocals, this EP had a lot to live up to. Unrealistic expectations aside, Vaginal Saw Entorturement is pretty good.

Extirpating the Infected's style is very primitive, yet very catchy. The two bands it reminded me of were Human Rejection and Vulvectomy. The riffs are plodding and crushing like Vulvectomy, but have a lot of jump to them like Human Rejection. This should get your head banging. There's also a cool guitar solo over slam riffs in one of the songs which I always like. A criticism here is that although there are a lot of good riffs throughout the EP, a lot of them feel very unoriginal. I know it's slam and some of that is to be expected, but considering the fact that Extirpating the Infected show that they can write a lot of good original riffs, it would've been better if they had not filled in the gaps with B-Grade slams we've all heard a million times. Also, since this is an EP it is very short and consequently it would be better if each song was full of good ideas since the number of songs is small compared to a full length.

That said, the good ideas definitely outweigh the bland ones, and even after years of listening to slam I still can't help but still kind of like those overplayed riffs. Vaginal Saw Entorturement is a worthwhile EP that should appeal to most slam fans, especially those into the more primitive and groovy bands.

Meshiha unleash rehearsal recording video on Youtube!

Ever wonder where the founding members of Devourment went after MTD/1.3.8? They stopped doing anything for a while, became born again Christians, and formed Meshiha. Nick and I both think this sounds terminally decent (and it isn't very slammy, really) but we'll wait for a proper recording to surface to make a real judgment...wanna see if you agree/disagree with our current call? Watch below!

Short Bus Pile Up - Promo 2009

SBPU are, as of this review, signed to the mighty Sevared Records which means that they don't even need our fucking help at all! But, we'll do them a favor (a late one, however) and review this actually quite strong promo.

Short Bus Pile Up may have a dumb name (which they should change, but whatever), but they began as goofy cybergrind that didn't take itself seriously and, indeed, they even claimed it as a joke project. It seems that some time in 2008 they started to become more serious and changed style to slam, which they continue with on this release.

"Gagging on Dick", the very lovely first track, begins with a lame sample and launches into surprisingly chunky, meaty slamming riffs with one of the fucking best snare sounds in slam that I've heard recently. It's up-front, pingy, reverbed and just generally awesome. It makes the slams (which are written quite well and structured equally tactfully) that much more satisfying. Track 2, "Fecal Matters" features more discernible vocals (though they're still basically incomprehensible) and a really great bass-bomb-to-slam section in the middle after a lame sample (stop doing this!!). I had my own doubts about this promo, to be honest, but they have been allayed quite well by the material here. The best titled track here has one of the best sections, this being the third one, "FUBAR (Felt Up By A Retard)" which has a stop-start-ish riff which reminds of general modern death metal and a rapid-fire vocal delivery slam which rolls the song forward into a recapitulation of the previous section with a minor change-up. The songwriting is kind of unfocused here but the sections written in are often of very high quality and thus I can't really fault them too much.

This promo is 5 songs in under ten minutes, which I find to be a length I like to consider "problematic". Since I mentioned previously that I think their songwriting is shoddy, I have to quickly make an aside to what I feel my greatest point of contention is here; undeveloped slams and underdeveloped songs in general. The band writes better slam than, say, Dysentery or Sexcrement, but, while their slam sections are powerful and kickass and their general creativity is very much alive and well, they don't seem to know how to keep a song going at the same powerful level. I wish these guys would strive to write longer, more developed songs in their same style. That's about my only problem here. Otherwise, great little promo and I look forward to the new one Barrett puts out.

Oh, and if you guys change the snare tone I'll be really angry with you.

That is all.

We're Still Around / New Russian Slam

Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of weeks people. It's the start of a new school year for both Andy and I and that has taken up a lot of our time. I just received a bunch of CDs in the mail however and I know Andy has some new things planned so keep an eye for new content in the coming weeks.

And just so this post isn't a complete waste, I'll talk about Weakness, a pretty good new slam band from Russia. They're very new and all they've released is a two song demo which came out this year. However they have already been signed to Pathologically Explicit Records and judging by the songs on their myspace this was a very good decision by PER. Weakness sound really heavy and have a lot of great slams reminiscent of both other Russian slam bands (Abominable Putridity, Katalepsy) as well as a couple good stop-start and evil sounding riffs that reminded me of the new Human Rejection album. Considering they are a demo level band I was very impressed by their songwriting and overall sound. Check out their myspace and see what you think.

Weakness @ Myspace