Review Summary: Cheesy and over the top, excessively violent, not to be taken too seriously and a whole bunch of lowbrow fun.
It's always nice when an extreme metal band has a sense of humour. It's even better when they don't have to rely on censor-baiting album covers and song names to show it. Boston-based goregrinders Terminally Your Aborted Ghost seem to be all too aware of the inherent ridiculousness of the genre they belong to, and embrace the absurdity of it all with a sly, knowing wink. This manifests itself in way, way, WAY over the top, pitch-shifted gurgling vocals, cheesy samples, stupidly overabundant pinch harmonics; hell, some of these riffs are downright
playful. There's even a little southern rock influence in some of the latter tracks. And - I kid you not - a cowbell.
Despite all this tomfoolery, the EP still manages to convey a crushing, oppressive atmosphere for the most part. The ambient title track, placed strategically in the middle of the album, contributes in no small part to this. Awash with feedback and static, and a host of unidentifiable sounds buried deep below, it sounds how one must imagine the slow, maddening onset of an unsane mind does. The production in general straddles the line between clarity and fuzzed-out, old-school dissonance. No one instrument is allowed to drown out another (well, the bass is a little under-represented, but at least it's audible for the most part) and the whole sound is quite organic. The guitar tone is suitably thick and chunky, yet doesn't sacrifice detail in the process. Guitarist Matt Richards (formerly of fellow goregrinders
Sexcrement) is no slouch on the fretboard, belting out one stormer of a riff after another as well as some maniacal bursts of shredding. Drumming is equally as solid, pulled off with gusto and no small amount of groove by the talented Eliot Bayless. Breakdowns are indeed present, but they are always tastefully executed and never kill the momentum of the songs - nor is the EP oversaturated with them.
Standout tracks include the second, Trenchfoot. Perhaps the most iconic quote from 1997 techno-horror flick Event Horizon menacingly crawls it's way out of your speakers, before what seems like a detonation of buzzsaws, belches, bodily fluids and brees blasts you out of your seat and pins you to the floor for the remaining minute and a half of insanity. The aforementioned cowbell of final track Disingenuous Quotation is a hilarious surprise - which I honestly feel a little bad about spoiling - especially when combined with the rollicking southern-tinged riff alongside it. The swinging, stomping conclusion to opening track Underbelly Lover shouldn't fail to get you bobbing your head in syncopation.
Lyrically-speaking, this release is remarkably solid too. Packed with equal amounts of alliteration and violent imagery, they contain an unusual amount of wit given the genre at hand, and are well worth taking a few seconds to look up. Good luck trying to get them to match up to the gurgles and grunts as you listen though. In fact, it's probably best to treat every lyric on the album itself as some varient of "RUUGGHHH" or "EEEUGHUUUUEWEEEEEEEE" and consider the words you've just Googled as an amusing, unrelated mini-booklet. Reconciling the two is a task roughly as difficult as decoding Jane Doe's anguished yelps and barks.
Overall, this is an extremely entertaining release if you're at all into the more extreme side of metal, and there is very little to fault it for. If you're not, it will admittedly be unlikely to sway you. Really, the worst thing about it is knowing that this will be the last material we'll ever hear from these lads, given that they called it quits back in 2008. At least they left us on a hell of a high.
Inanimately Soundless actually reminds me of Event Horizon in a way; cheesy and over the top, excessively violent, not to be taken too seriously and a whole bunch of lowbrow fun.
Recommended Tracks:
-Trenchfoot
-Underbelly Lover
-Disengenuous Quotation
-Eyeshadow Whore
