Abominable Putridity - The Anomalies of Artificial Origins (2012; Brutal Bands)

I went into this album knowing I would be disappointed. For me Abominable Putridity's 2007 debut In The End of Human Existence is one of the top slam albums of the decade. While it did nothing to transcend the genre (eg Wormed or Defeated Sanity) I feel it helped set the standard for what slam was as a genre. If I had to sum up slam death metal in one album I would choose that one.

After listening to this album I found I was not as disappointed as I thought I was going to be. It has some flaws (which I'll get to later), but overall The Anomalies of Artificial Origins is a slick, well-written and well performed album.

First the positives. Abominable Putridity have definitely upped the technicality. Now this always makes me a little nervous because so many bands substitute technicality for songwriting, but AP did it well here.The tech parts are well integrated with the slamming, never devolve into pointless wankery, and are actually intelligible. There are a lot of Dying Fetus-esque slicing arpeggios with touches of Cali DM tremolo melodies in the background. There's still plenty of headbanging slams of course, but it's nice to see a band evolve in a way that makes sense and that sounds good.

This album also features the legendary Matti Way (Disgorge, Pathology) on vocals. If you're a fan (as you should be) you will enjoy his work here. His sick vocals have not lost any of their power in the 20 years since Disgorge first formed. One problem I did have was that the vocals were near constant throughout the album. As good as Matti Way is, it grates a little to hear him gurgling away through the whole song. Slam is all about the transitions - fast/slow, melody/rhythm, blast/breakdown - so when the vocals never let up they lose the power they would have had had they been silent for a little while. This is an example of too much of a good thing.

Did this album live up to its predecessor? No, but I don't think it could've, at least for me. In 2007 slam was just getting started really. Slam-Minded was just getting started, and in many ways I was just getting started as an adult. In the End of Human Existence captured me and many others in the slam scene because it was the perfect album at the perfect time. There was no way a follow up album album was going to be as good. And that's a shame because The Anomalies of Artificial Origins is an excellent album.