Human Rejection - Decrepit to Insanity PRE-ORDERS!

Human (fucking) Rejection has finally given us, the slammers, what we've wanted; a new album.  Well, soon anyway.  PathEx is now taking package-deal preorders for the new HR album, Decrepit to Insanity, and they'll be shipping in early April.  HR's album from 2007 was a favorite of Nick and I's, featuring awesome vocals (fuck off the haters), amazing downtuned slams, bouncy grooves and fun basswork.  Support the scene and pick these up when you can (I'd advise those stateside to wait until they're available here, though, pre-orders overseas can sometimes be weird), you'll be in for a treat.

Embryonic Depravity/Gorevent - Malignant Opus of Inherited Depravities (Sevared; 2009)

Finally, ED unleashes something widely available, and with Japanese slam-mongers Gorevent to boot.  This is somewhat of a funny pairing; ED is of course all about blasting technicality with sinister slam/tremolo riffing and snaky songwriting.  The bass pops out at little intervals like the breakdown in the excellently titled "Acephalous Transmutation" which is a well-documented favorite quirk of mine.  The weak link in the band is actually probably Rob's vocals (sorry man!) which aren't quite guttural enough for my tastes, but I suppose they work well enough in the regard that ED isn't a "totally slam" band that needs all-out gutturals.

The fact that the bass even exists is awesome, also, because their first demo which contained the aforementioned track had no bass on it as far as I know! James, the new bassist, has implemented his personal style well in the structure of the band, especially in breakdowns as I said.  During the blasting the riffs can get a little lost behind the clanging ride/hi-hat combo, but otherwise, the drums sound great; crisp, clear and full.  I'd like to hear Rob try a higher vocal register here and there, maybe via multitracking, as dual high/guttural vocals sound like they would fit snugly here, if I do say so myself.  The tappy/sweepy solo at the end of "Insurgence of Dogmatic Antiquity" is even better here than it was on the demo, also.  "The Propagation of Decrepitude" if I recall correctly was a Myspace sample of the band's new work for a while, featuring stop-on-a-dime tempo changes that sound totally natural for the band, and feature the band working with a slightly beefed-up production for some reason.  The little guitar noodlies tend to bother me here and there, a little too "Cali" for these ears (though some bands can pull it off, Gortuary being one!).

I am interested in seeing where they go from here; if they develop their "futuristic" seeming sound/aesthetic a little more, they could achieve unthinkable levels of technical slam/deathgrind supremacy in the future.  As always, a band to watch and support.

Gorevent presents their entire demo + a previously unheard track(?) here, and if Embryonic Depravity represent the future of slam, Gorevent represent the cavemen; the neanderthals of plugging-away slam with no glorious solos, no noodly guitar thingies, no big tempo-changing-blast-breakdown sections...just pure, unadulterated, demo-style Abominable Putridity/Devourment slam of a tall and downtuned order.  These troglodytic tones always hit the spot for me, though, their bludgeoning excess always beating the listener into submission; this is definitely the audial sound of a sledgehammer crushing skulls mercilessly!

Even for a demo, the sound is pretty good all things considered, and the songwriting is what we expect.  "Gory the Body" is a track that didn't make its way onto the album from last year (a big hit around these parts for the impersonal, disturbing way they handle slam and twist it in their own atrocious, surreal way...very Japanese, as such), but it should have, as it begins with a ludicrous breakdown in which now-ex female bassist Sonobe's individual tones can be heard menacingly strummed under the chugging low-cut gritty guitars in all their hammering glory. The middle section has a very cool riff into a half-blasting section which dissolves into yet another slam breakdown, perhaps kind of a weird songwriting choice, but it's fun and would get pits confused and subsequently bloodthirsty.

"Monition" is a song I've never heard, as mentioned, and it's a little rawer and more Abominable Putridity-esque than the others but with a certain charm and organic feel unlike AP.  The kick drum is a little annoying, sort of clicky, but not fast enough to blend in, so it feels like it sticks out.  The chugging pinch harmonic section is a big plus though, more bands need to do the onward-moving straight chug/pinch thing, it's always awesome sounding to me.  Well, there you have it.  The UK and Japan team up to offer two sides of the "brutality" coin from the West and East ends.  What seems like a slightly strange pairing left me feeling like there couldn't have been a better one.  Hats off to Barrett for making this happen, and a fist to my own face for not having reviewed this 2 weeks ago when I got it!

Dead for Ten Weeks - Bloodline Detriment (Unmatched Brutality; 2007)

Despite their rather checkered history, Unmatched Brutality have releases a fair amount of good brutal death metal, most recently the very good debut of Orchidectomy. Back in 2007 they released Bloodline Detriment the debut full-length of Gulfport, Mississippi's Dead for Ten Weeks. Taking their name from Devourment lyrics (Choking on Bile to be specific), Dead for Ten Weeks play a very evil sounding mix of most American brutal stylings.

I think the primary influence on this album comes from the mighty Suffocation. The same choppy, technical riffs followed by quick pounding slams is here. Also to be found on Bloodline Detriment are the groovy pit riffs of TXDM and the slicing melodicism of CADM. Really there's a lot to like here. A criticism that can be made is that no one element really stands here. While good, most of the brutality here is pretty standard. The vocals follow the riffing in that they are pretty varied, but are also average sounding. Kind of like labelmates Orchidectomy this is partially made up for by the fact that there is a lot of variation which prevents boredeom from setting in.

Now, while I said the brutal riffing tended towards the mean, Dead for Ten Weeks do manage to elevate themselves slightly above the enjoyable mediocrity that characterizes so many bands of this genre. They do this by adding just a couple moments of old school death metal to the album. On the whole I find OSDM pretty good but not as satisfying in the long run as brutal death. However one thing it does better than brutal death metal is creating an atmosphere of evil and that is what elevates Dead for Ten Weeks above the average. Those couple moments of evil, old school sickness, lend Bloodline Detriment some uniqueness and the contrast between the new and old styles makes them both sound better.

I think this phenomenon is similar to what Clitoridus Invaginatus (review) did when they added a couple moments of rock into their brutal death metal. Dead for Ten Weeks don't stray that far from the nest, but they did create an enjoyable album with Bloodline Detriment.

Four New Bands to Check Out

Every so often I like to do some random myspace searching to see what bands I can find. Usually I start on one band and then just click withing their top friends to another band and so on. Today I went on a particularly fruitful trip and found some very good slam coming up from the underground.

First off is Cerebral Incubation who are from Las Vegas, NV. Las Vegas is home to the very popular Guttural Secrete and I can hear some similarities here. CI play very typical USA style midpaced slam. There are plenty pinch harmonics and very good gutturals. Not terribly exciting and you've heard it all before, but it's solid stuff. This is slam death after all, there's not a huge amount of things you can do differently and it's pretty hard to screw up. They have just released their first full length called Asphyxiating on Excrement via the Russian label Soulflesh Collector. I don't think I'll be rushing to get this, but from the sounds of their myspace it's a worthwhile effort.

www.myspace.com/cerebralincubation

Next up on my little tour we have Perverse Dependence who are from the Northwestern Russian port city of Arkhangelsk. I was actually surprised at how good this band is. There is no release information on their myspace and they're not on metal-archives but the little album cover picture on the player says "DEMO" so I'm going to assume they have a demo out somewhere. Musically they remind me of Poppy Seed Grinder, a European Blaze Inside, and Katalepsy. It's really good mix of groove and speed that sounds like it would be awesome for moshing. I hope this band gets signed and releases something soon because they really sound good.

www.myspace.com/perversedependence

Our next stop is Chieti/Pescara, Italy where we find Tools of Torture. Tools of Torture features members of Death/Grind band Bestial Devastation and play groovy brutal death. You can definitely tell it's Italian and there are similarities between this and Septycal Gorge, most notably with it's cool tremolo riffs. Tools of Torture is groovier than their countryment though. Tools of Torture released a full length in 2008 call Faith - Purification - Executioner on Despise the Sun Records. Not the best Italy has to offer but it's still decent. It's more of a testament to the fact that ITDM is so consistently above average rather than that Tools of Torture are below average.

www.myspace.com/againsthepig

Finally we'll head a little bit north to Verona, Italy where we find one man brutalizer Alessandro "Fetz" Simonetti and his musical project Egemony. This guy apparently does everything following in the footsteps of Shawn Whittaker (Insidious Decrepancy) or Ivan Jaramillo (Ancient Necropsy). Egemony has been featured on a 3 way split with other one man projects Flesh Impaled and Infinite Defilement and has just released a full length called Baptysm Of The Unborn which is available in Europe via Nice to Eat You Records and North America via Sevared Records. Again the Italianness is evident and Fetz acknowledges this quite explicitly with a cover of Septycal Gorge's song Abominated Hierarchy and has tons of guest appearance on the album from people throughout the ITDM scene. Fetz takes the ITDM sound and adds a lot of influence from bands like Deeds of Flesh and Disgorge (US). The production quality sounded very good, even with myspaces quality raping factored in. I'm very impressed by this project and I think I'll definitely pick this one up.

www.myspace.com/egemony

"New" Devourment Song Live Video at Tokyo Deathfest

I found this video while searching youtube and I figured the readers of S-M might enjoy it. It's Devourment playing their "new" (quotes because it has been out for a while now) song Fed to the Pigs at Tokyo Deathfest 08. Sounds pretty good and I have high hopes for the new Devourment album which is scheduled to come out this year