Review Summary: This split CD will appeal to all fans of grind and death metal, you’d be mad to miss it. Make sure it’s one of your next purchases.
Whenever I hear that a band uses ‘pig vocals’ in their music, a million and one different prejudices come into my head, most of them negative. Maybe it’s because of the overload of terrible ‘myspace grind’ bands or maybe it’s because I have never heard a band implement them into their music to good effect. Now I have.
Putrefy kick things off on this split and immediately prove they are a hard act to follow. All of their songs that feature on Vomiting Putrid Blasphemy are, quite simply, grind perfection. The guitar tone is thick and heavy, hitting you right between the eyes while the drums and bass thump you in the gut. This is the aural equivalent to being in a vicious fight. Their section kicks off with the familiar voice of Robert De Niro in fine form murdering a young upstart and then moaning about the sordid state that the world is coming to.
‘Cranium Smashing Brutality’ does exactly what it says on the tin. The guitar tone here is immense, providing a wall of sound that would have Lucifer himself trembling in his boots. The drumming is superb, acting as an anchor that holds the various complexities of the songs together. I have to admit that the vocals did take me a while to get used to. However, as they complement the Putrefy’s sound to great effect and you’ll even grow amicable towards them after hearing these songs.
The thing that really stands out for me about Putrefy is that nearly all of the songs on this split are memorable, which is a key component that many bands in this particular genre seem to lack. You’ll have the riffs to these songs stuck in your head all day whether it’s the old school death metal riff that comes in a minute into ‘Once Upon The Slab’ or the breakdown riff of ‘Cranium Smashing Brutality’, I guarantee that you will take something of these songs away in your head. The only problem I can find with their section is the clip used to introduce ‘Slurping On Cuntslop’: it takes away from the song in my opinion. However, small gripes aside, Putrefy really produce the goods on this CD, setting the standards for Blasphtized and Vomitous Rectum to follow.
After the onslaught that was Putrefy’s section on this split, the UK’s Blasphtized have a hard act to follow. Thankfully, they produce the goods. ‘Inversion Tactics’ introduces this band to the world in fashion. Beginning with a bizarre B - movie clip, it progresses into a death metal onslaught which culminates with frenzied double bass drumming presided over by Tom Blackwell’s guttural growls. ‘Irreligious Refinement’ continues in the same vein with breakneck speed that doesn’t let up in intensity for one second. The samples act as a break between songs and suit the music to a tee. The riffs on Blasphtized section are bludgeoning and carry the songs forward. The bass work is extremely good as well, utilizing a clean tone, which is a welcome addition as you can actually hear what’s being played amongst the chaos of the guitars. Listen to the great fills in ‘Mictyrating the Manger (The Unholy Offering)’ and you will see what I mean. ‘John the Blasphist’ drops the tempo and creates some great slamming riffs, which act as the platform for Tom Blackwell to growl his sermons over. All in all, Blasphtized put on an extremely strong performance and leave the listener hungry for more.
New York’s Vomitous Rectum holds the final section of the split. They start off promisingly with ‘130-75’ however I can’t help but be turned off a little by the vocals. The death grunts are superb, executed really well. However, the pig-inhaled vocals leave a lot to be desired. They sound strained and don’t sit very well with the death vocals. Musically, the band is very tight utilizing complex riffing and plenty of blasting, along with some classic New York Death Metal slam riffs. Songs such as ‘Necromantic Assimilation’ hint at what the band can really do, and they hold up extremely well with the other bands on the split.
The production for Vomitous Rectum is nice and gritty, complementing the music rather than taking away from it. Each instrument sits well in the mix, although the bass can be hard to make out sometimes which is a shame as there are some great fills in ‘130-75’ which deserve to stand out a bit more.
This band has bags of potential and once they find their sound a bit more and tighten up the vocals, they will be a force to be reckoned with.
