Review Summary: There should be a law...
When I first listened to
Waking The Cadaver's debut album
Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler, I thought I had found the lowest depths that heavy metal could sink to. The album featured extremely generic guitar work consisting of bland, uninspired chugging and one momentary riff, laughably off-time drumming with a trash can-like tone a la
St. Anger, a vocalist who sounded like a frog gargling sandpaper, and possibly the worst lyrics in the history of death metal.
Perverse Recollections... has acquired a reputation as one of the worst metal albums of all time. However, after listening to
Illuminations of Vile Engorgement by Enmity, who, coincidentally, are label mates of Waking The Cadaver, I feel that only now have I listened to the worst, the bottom of the barrel, or whichever synonym you prefer.
Enmity is a brutal death metal/grindcore band from Tucson, Arizona, formed by brothers Rob and Chad Weber. They formed with the intention to create the most brutal music possible, as evidenced by the quote below. Unfortunately, while they may have wish to create the sickest music possible, they forgot that they were still trying to make music.
“We believe that death metal is all about extreme brutality, and is the sole reason for it's existence. Therefore the sicker the better.”
The vocals are likely what one would first notice upon listening, as they certainly fit the definition of "sick". While the term "pig squealing" has become known as the style that many deathcore vocalists use, Rob's vocals are near-indistinguishable from that of a pig's, and are about enjoyable as hearing a blender's activation button being pressed and released at random. At times, it is hard to imagine that
any living creature could have made the noises heard throughout the album.
Musically, the band is no better. The drumming consists of monotonous blast beats and gravity blasts that never once waver. The snare also has a piercing
St. Anger-esque tone, giving the album yet another similarity with
Perverse Recollections..., as well as making the drums annoying as well as boring. The guitar work is incredibly lazy, with all songs consisting of what sounds like the same chord repeated ad nauseum from beginning to end. The effect this has on the listener is akin to the effect that writing lines on a chalkboard has on a disobedient child. The bass, unsurprisingly, is nonexistent, never once breaking out, or even contributing, to the sludge of sound. It's hardly hyperbole to say that every track sounds the same. While that saying has been used countless times as an exaggeration, this might be one of the few times that it is completely true.
While Enmity have accomplished their goal, and their devotion to making such ugly noise must be respected, they have still produced an album which could be retitiled
How NOT to Make Music: 101.
Illuminations of Vile Engorgement is such an unpleasant listening experience that it makes one consider proposing a law to mandate a consumer protection label on releases like this, or even ban them altogether.
