Abominable Putridity - Parasitic Metamorphosis Manifestation (2021; Inherited Suffering Records)

Welcome back, my fellow slammers. Lately, I've been feeling increasingly-certain that this year will turn out to be one of the most memorable in recent memory for our beloved genre of brutal musical sickness. Out of seemingly-nowhere (though I personally think it's more likely that they popped out of an interdimensional space after hibernating in cosmic stasis for a while), Russian heavy machine Abominable Putridity bestowed upon the world its third full-length album (first in about nine years!) after tons of lineup changes and an air of uncertainty about the future of the project. I realize that there has been a healthy amount of cynicism regarding AP, since news had up until recently been pretty sparse, and of course the mysterious vacating of every member but the drummer and the subsequent recruitment of journeyman vocalist Ángel Ochoa in the early stages of last year were kind of shocking to some fans, but I think I speak for many of us when I say that this album is, perhaps slightly-surprisingly, fucking awesome.

When I got the e-mail from Inherited Suffering Records that this randomly popped up on Bandcamp last week, my jaw hit the floor as I realized it wasn't just another random single but an entire freaking album. There were rumors this was going to drop in 2020, but it seems like it may have required a bit more time in the incubator, or perhaps Alex knew that 2021 would be a better time to drop this as it seems we may be in the middle of a bit of a slam renaissance right now, but whatever the reason, I immediately hit play and proceeded to expect at least some element of disappointment or "well, that was fine, but not sure why we waited so long for it." Again, I'm reasonably confident I speak for at least some of you reading this right now when I say tension was high and expectations were set at a comfortably-moderate level. My fears felt at least slightly quelled as the short intro gave way to a near-perfect chunky slam with some triplet modulations and interesting rhythms peppered throughout. At this point, I was essentially somewhere between "massively-fucking-excited" and "still-somewhat-leery," both due to my familiarity with the earlier version of the next track and my general (probably-misguided) lack of faith.

I really enjoyed "Supreme Void" with Matti on vocals, but I always felt like he phoned in his way around the lyrics, which made it tough to read along to the lyric video they released. I know this is a silly criticism because who really cares about lyrics in stuff like this, but I think it kind of points to a bigger issue within this scene... guest vocalists that just don't feel like they "belong" on the source material. I was a bit worried about the inclusion of Ángel here, too, honestly, and at first I recall thinking his performance on this was a bit lackluster upon initial listens (and it seems like there are different lyric for this track entirely because it's impossible to follow along with the original 2018 words, but I suppose that's not really here nor is it there), but after a while it felt very natural. Think about the vocals on In The End Of Human Existence. They're pretty characterless and bland, right? It feels like Ángel's gutturals here were purposely kept a little plain, and his penchant for wet, slurring, sometimes-goofy vociferations has been seemingly pretty held-back here, but I think it actually works well. Just my opinion, of course. Anyway, the track has heavier and thicker production than the 2018 version, but it's overall pretty similar outside of the vocalist switch.

The opening lurch of "Obscure Entity of Darkness" further sells the excellence of this release and is really the first taste of what you're truly in for during the remainer of the run-time. A superb mix of complex tremolo/blast sections with surprising melodies and hard-hitting slams that plod in the most satisfying way possible. The opening section of "Sphacelated Nerves" from this band's debut has long been one of my favorite slams due to its fun groove and 4/4 splash usage, and it's cool to hear that Alex's callsign of flavorful drumming has remained over the long period since the debut AP work, because the well-done fills and satisfying ride usage have really wormed their way into the mix here in a really efficient way. The crisp mix doesn't hurt either, and I have been pretty consistently impressed by how many times I've picked up small details like bass licks or subtle slam modulations I've missed each time I return to this one. And it's only been a week, so I guarantee I'll be finding more to love about this as the year proceeds.

As someone who was not really big into The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin, I was beyond happy to hear just how much this new album sounds like an energetic, adrenaline-driven mid-point between the caveman slam of In The End... and the spastic technicality of Anomalies... Vigorous, pummeling slams drive most of these tracks to extremely-visceral and satisfying places while slight deviations into chaos help it stay diverse and re-playable without seeming too unhinged. Russian slam has pretty typically been constantly teetering on the edge of "alright guys, this is a bit too much" and "yes, just do exactly that for twenty-five minutes and record it" to me, so that makes the balance this strikes all the more impressive to my trained ears.

Though it will probably take me another few weeks to distinguish these songs from one another without looking at the tracklist, each track does truly feel like a microcosm of excellent ideas pushed to extremely-logical conclusions with very little in the way of noticeable drops in quality. Unexpected twists like the deviant slam about 50 seconds into "Inorganic Infusion Protocol," the weird filter sweep part halfway into "Paroxysm," and the dark, foreboding melody that makes up a lot of the latter half of "Superior Extradimensional Decimation" lend some good delineation to these songs and make the experience feel very purposeful and well-composed, which is a prominent aspect of "one-man slam" acts that is worthy of consideration. Slam solo projects have been a common occurrence for pretty much the entirety of the time I've been into the genre, and in my opinion this is the type of music that benefits from having a single mind do a lot of the creative work because it can be such a straightforward style at its core. It's amusing that this is almost paradoxically not an example of that, considering how off-the-wall some of the stuff happening here is, but the fact that it is pretty invariably-cohesive, single-minded, and relentless speaks to Alex's talents and his growth as a writer over the long years of silence.

Overall, AP's new album is a massive slab of great slam with diverse and flourishing technicality placed at opportune moments along its lean 25 minute run-time. I think this one is going to be pretty tough to top, though several great releases have already found their way into constant rotation on my playlists so far this year; always a great sign. In terms of comparisons to other bands, this seems to owe a lot to Condemned (dark and dreary atmosphere that nevertheless feels alive and dangerous), Defeated Sanity (some songwriting choices feel Lille-esque), and Wormed (general concept as well as the marriage of technicality with chunky slams) by turns, but it really does feel like its own thing. I hope this album gets the praise it deserves, and I'm happy to highly-recommend it to anyone and everyone who loves this type of music. Hell, this has a big enough level of crossover appeal with tech death without really truly immersing into that pool that it could bring over some people who have misunderstood or otherwise not really found themselves enjoying slam over the years. This is a resounding success. Class dismissed. End of discussion.

Relevant Links:
Abominable Putridity - Parasitic Metamorphosis Manifestation (official direct Bandcamp link)
Inherited Suffering Records (official website)