Cease of Breeding - Sounds of Disembowelment (Amputated Vein; 2010)

One of the better developments in the slam scene over the past few years has been the emergence of Southern Europe as a source for excellent brutal death metal. Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal have all contributed excellent bands and albums. It is no surprise then that fellow Southern Europeans Cease of Breeding's first full length Sounds of Disembowelment is also excellent.

Cease of Breeding hail from Greece and have been around since 2003 and have released a couple demos and EPs before Sounds of Disembowelment. I vaguely remember being unimpressed by their 2008 EP, but they've taken many steps forward here.

Sounds of Disembowelment has a lot of dynamism and variation to sink your teeth into. At its core it features the barreling juggernaut deathgrind style you hear from Decaying Purity or Cerebral Effusion. Around this core are the interesting melodies of Septycal Gorge and the slams and frantic basswork of Vomit the Soul. This is all mixed together in a brutal stew.

It makes sense to me that this band has been around since 2003 because this feels like a mature release. It does not feel rushed or unrefined like some other albums. This band clearly has paid its dues and does all the little things right. This translates into every part of the experience being integrated well. I commend Cease of Breeding for taking their time when creating this album. The effort definitely shows.

Southern Europe may be having financial issues right now, but their brutal death metal sector is doing just fine. Check this album out if you like any of the big bands from Italy, Spain, or Portugal.

More Filipino Slam on the Horizon

If you are like me and love the slam scene in the Philippines, then I have some good news. Both Human Mastication and Down From the Wound are planning to release new albums in 2011. Down From the Wound have not yet released a title for their album, but Human Mastication's new one is called Persecute to Bloodbath. According to Sevared (the label releasing both of these) Persecute to Bloodbath will feature some new songs, and some songs from Human Mastication's split with Smallpox Aroma. There is less info about Down From the Wound's album, but their last full length was really good, so I'm hopeful about this one. It's been a while since they've released anything, so to hear Down From the Wound is still around and making music is good news.

If you like Filipino slam, keep an eye out for these releases.

Extirpating the Infected - Beheading the Dead (Sevared Records; 2010)

Describing slam bands as "groovy" has always struck me as a little funny. Not that it's not an accurate description, it's just odd that some of the most brutal and violent music can share a term with 60s hippy slang. I mention this because Extirpating the Infected's album Beheading the Dead is one of grooviest albums I've heard in a while.

Extirpating the Infected come from Spain, and prior to this have released one EP - 2009's Vaginal Saw Entorturement (review). Vaginal Saw Entorturement was pretty good, but it didn't do a whole lot to stand out from the mass of decent slam bands. In the year or so between Vaginal Saw Entorturement and Beheading the Dead however, Extirpating the Infected have improved. They're not yet ready to challenge the best of the European slam bands, but they've jumped to another level.

As I mentioned earlier, Beheading the Dead has some serious groove. By this I mean syncopation and rhythm are still the main dynamic going on here, but its more smooth and loose compared to other slam bands. The songs rumble along like a disfigured pile of flesh. Don't expect tight riffing and needle-like technicality. Rather, we have some serious headbanging grooves. In this way, Beheading the Dead reminded me a lot of goregrind or old-school doomy death metal. Beheading the Dead is still firmly rooted in brutal death metal territory, but it's got that loose, swaying feeling that those other genres have.

The main improvement over the first EP is increasing the originality and not relying as much on stock slam riffs. This kind of breezy slam is relatively easy listening, so to remain interesting over an album length the band needs to keep things fresh from song to song. I think Extirpating the Infected accomplished this goal.

Top tier slam this is not, but its still a goresoaked groovefest and should please most genre fans.

P.S. I love the expression on the guy's face on the album cover. It's like he just saw goatse.

Rest in Gore - Culinary Buffet of Hacked Innards (Sevared Records; 2011)

Slam-Minded is finally reviewing a brutal release from 2011. Does our year of reviews begin with a classic? Or are we looking at a complete failure? The answer is neither. Rest in Gore have crafted perhaps the most acceptable and middling album I have heard. Mediocre is too harsh a word to describe Culinary Buffet of Hacked Innards but good is a little too good to describe it.

The band behind this album hail from Japan, which is why it doesn't really surprise me that I found this album okay. A lot of Japanese bands have released some middle of the road material in the past couple years. For evidence, look at Gorevent or Infernal Revulsion's second albums. The songs on those albums just didn't have the kind of energy and dynamism that brutal death metal needs to stay interesting behind the wall of riffing, blast beats and growling.

And that is the flaw of Culinary Buffet of Hacked Innards. It's actually the only flaw, because otherwise things are pretty well executed. The musicianship is fine, the vocals are sick, and the drums are loud and fast. I also really like the Tony Koehl artwork and Rest in Gore is a pretty badass name. There's just no energy behind any of it. Its like the band is doing everything right, but they weren't excited by it.

Part of what I like about this kind of music is the "brutal aura" that the music creates. It's that "oh shit" feeling in that moment of silence before the huge slam. It's that crushed feeling after a particularly good technical section. I didn't feel that aura from this album.

So where does this leave us? I know this review sounds pretty negative, but as I said this is not bad in any way, it's just not particularly good either. My recommendation is to listen for yourself, and see if you like it more than me. The mechanics of a good album are there, so I feel like I might be missing something. Either way I am sure I will hear both better - and worse - albums this year.

[Nick's Note: Apologies for the lack of content recently. My computer died and I had to get a new one. Things should be back to normal now]

Suffocation and the Roots of Brutal Death

For good reasons Slam-Minded tends to focus on newer bands and newer releases. If we just talked about old material, the blog would get stale fast. However, I think occasionally it is worth revisiting the classics and the founders of a genre. Not only does this remind you of what makes the music great, it also means you are only listening to premium music. This is what I've been doing recently (as you can see, no reviews for a couple weeks), but I wanted to share my thoughts about probably the most important band for Brutal Death: Suffocation.

Suffocation pretty much single-handedly took death metal from heavier thrash metal and melodic stuff like Morbid Angel and the Swedish scene, and created the path of percussive, rhythmic, brutal death metal that we know and love today. No disrespect to those other bands, but I personally feel that the path Suffocation created is the best, and closest to what I feel is great about death metal. Listen to songs like "Infecting the Crypts" and "Liege of Inveracity" and you can see the seeds of slam death that would sprout a little less than a decade later. If you enjoy all the new bands that we write about here, then you owe Suffocation a debt of gratitude. I'm sure almost every reader of this blog has heard Suffocation, but I encourage you to go back and remember how amazing these guys were and are.