Review Summary: THEM RUSSIANS STRAIGHT CRUSHIN'
Scrambled Defuncts are an absurdly slept on brutal death metal band out of Moscow, Russia. Catacomb Abattoir marks their debut full length and is quite the hidden gem if there ever was one. Prepare yourself for a tight as hell maze of tormented riffing, chugging, and jagged solos prepared to rip you into teeny, tiny pieces. Quickly submit to the almighty riff and pulsating bass and allow the beast depicted on the album cover to rip you shreds and do whatever it is that beasts do with what is left of you afterward.
The intro creeps in with a brief symphonic opening and soon after leaps into the groovy ass chuggery that will envelope your ears for the remainder of the runtime. Start stops come aplenty along with many nasty ass slams. Immediately the bass will leap out at you as it sits in the mix at the very least equal with the guitars, if not at times completely overpowering them. The flurries of dope basslines occasionally seem almost reminiscent of old school 8-bit NES tunes. This element alone gives this album quite a unique flavor when held up against others in the genre.
"Carnage In Catacomb" has that super bouncy death metal feel that my ears befall into treacherous orgasm whilst soaking in. The track features some epic riffing then rips into an amazingly shredtastic, yet soaring solo. "Delicate Knackery" starts up right after and showcases one of the coolest basslines your ears will ever have the opportunity to be in awe of. Catacomb Abattoir is so chalk full of musical sickness that I find myself struggling to resist my fingers going down the dreading path of the infamously loathed "track by track review". To put it simply, every musician featured here is front to back on their A game and it shows in a major way with each individual track being a total standout.
Overall Scrambled Defuncts came into the brutal death metal game on serious business. This album dropped in what I would consider the golden era of the style and I'd say this one easily puts the majority of what was dropping then to shame. There's exceptions of course because the genre rules. That being said the songwriting here is impeccable especially for a band that was just beginning to spread their wings. The bands most recent outing in 2009 was a completely symphonic brutal death album titled Souls Despising The God. While that release is unique and the only I know of it's kind it really bums me out that this killer album tends to be overshadowed by it. Do yourselves a favor and throw yourself into the Catacomb and get ***ing unboned, skinned, and ripped!!!
