Thursday, March 15, 2012

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.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey I'm wondering why you didn't review on Fumes Of Decay - Devouring The Excavated.One of the great releases in 2011 I think.

Anonymous said...

Great review! I really enjoyed this album. Matti Way is one of my top 5 death metal vocalists, the drumming is freaking tight, and, as you said, they upped the tech AND the songwriting. Keep up the great work on the blog guys! - Steve

Nick Adams said...

Anonymous - Thanks for the reminder! I actually remember listening to that last year and enjoying it quite a bit. I'll dust it off and review it in the coming weeks.

Steve - Thanks! I would also put Matti Way in my top five, but as I said in the review, I wish AP had deployed him a little more efficiently on this album.

Anonymous said...

@Nick Adams glad to hear that.In addition,I want to see the review of "Secreted Entity - Horrifying Hallucinations Of Ungodly Activities".This is amazing release in 2012.I felt the drum was too big sound at first time,but after listening many times,it got to be cool sound for me.

Anonymous said...

Concur with the take on In the End of Human Existence. It is as simple as simple gets, but sometimes simple is great.