Review Summary: An extemely chaotic and fun album for fans of the brutal side of the music spectrum.
This album starts out with one very simple question from the Cryptkeeper, "Are you ready to rock and roll?" Well you better be ready because Gorerotted deliver one hell of a brutal album with their second full-length album
Only Tool and Corpes. Gorerotted, now known as The Rotted, are a band that mixes brutal death metal and grindcore, something that is also known as deathgrind. Even though this album is heavy as hell and extremely brutal, these Brits still like to have a litte bit of fun, which is apparent by song titles such as *** Your Arse With Broken Glass and Can't Fit Her Limbs in the Fridge. The album overall has a very dirty and violent sound, while still being very fun and havuing a good sense of humor. If you don't quite get what I'm saying, keep on reading.
Now like I mentioned earlier, the album is very violent sounding, which is most apparent in the riffs and also in the vocals. The riffs are fast as hell and are plenty catchy. Theres only a few riffs in each song because most of the songs are really short, around the 2 or 3 minute mark. The album changes pace quite a bit. They can go from beating you face in with fast paced riffs and blast beats one second, to slowing it all down and just grooving along. There's also a guitar solo thrown in here and there. When they happen they don't last very long, but they're a nice change every once in a while. The variation keeps the album interesting and makes it seem fresh, which is a good thing, especially in death metal. Drumming is varied as well, going from blast beats (which is most common), to double bass during faster parts, and just keeping the pace during slower parts or during a guitar solo, such as in Her Gash I Did Slash. Gorerotted pretty much do it all within the instrumental department and once again, keep it sounding fresh.
The most interesting thing about this album is most definitely the vocals and lyrics. First of all, the lyrics are mostly funny as hell and keep gore themes at a maximum (once again I have to reference the third track, *** Your Arse With Broken Glass). I mean come on, you're bound to have a laugh or two with song titles like that. That's where the fun aspect comes into it. It can be fun and hilarious while being gross as hell at the same time. These guys have a good time with what they do. There are two different vocalists on this album and ultimately two different styles of vocals. On one hand you have a higher pitched rasp, not quite a black metal style, but still a higher pitch for death metal, which are performed by a man named simply Mr. Gore. And on the other hand you have the death growl that we all know and love (or hate in some people's case), which are performed by Goreskin. Sometimes Goreskin's growls are reminiscent of the vocals of Demilich with the "burp" styled growls. The contrast of vocals throughout the album really keeps the listener guessing. Neither vocalist is dominant and they both get an equal amount of time to show off what they can do. Sometimes Goreskin will be growling something while Mr. Gore screams his ass off in the background, such as in Village People of the Damned.
Seasoned death metal vets will most definitely find something to enjoy in
Only Tools and Corpses. There's everything that a death metal fan could love somewhere throughout the album even though it is only 29 minutes long. The length is also another positive about the album because if you're looking to give death metal a try, this album could be a perfect starting point both because it's really short and because it's meant to entertain while still being brutal and intense enough for death metal fans. Whether it's the catchy riffs, the varied drumming, the insane vocals of both Mr. Gore and Goreskin, this album just does everything extremely well. It never gets sloppy even during all the chaos that you have going on. Fans of brutal music will definitely have to add this to your list of things to listen to if you haven't already.
