Review Summary: ROTTING FROM THE INSIDE OUT.
Gaffed are so back baby! The New Jersey death metal horror masters reformed during the pandemic in 2020 after disbanding in the mid 90s. The band released 2 demos,
A Meal of Gore in 1994 and
It Hurts to Be Dead in 1995, before going their separate ways. The boys burst back onto the scene in 2023 with their debut full length album
Die Already, one of my personal favs of that year. And now, they’ve reworked their early demos into their second ass slashing album
I Can Feel Myself Rot
This album is a bit of a 180 from the debut. Instead of the more campy horror inspired brutal death metal/goregrind mixed with B-movie samples, they opt for a raw early 90s sounding aspect of brutality, reminding the listener of early Deicide and/or Suffocation. The buzzsaw riffs will stalk you track after track like Jason stalking a drugged out teenager. It almost borders on the early days of slam a la Internal Bleeding with hammering breakdowns, face shredding solos and a guttural assault that sounds like a zombie spitting out 1000 years of dirt and worms. That magical essence of 90s death metal is present throughout the duration, harkening back to the lofi and unhinged chaos of the scene back in those days.
An old-school death metal album such as this is obviously going to be reliant on the riffs. That’s just how it goes. But the atmosphere is also extremely on point. The whole album seems as if you’re being stalked by a masked murderer. The riffs are like a bear trapped being set while the blasting of the drums and putrid vocals are equivalent to some poor soul being beaten over and over with a blunt object. They all play off of each other magically and create an atmosphere full of panic and confusion.
What we have here is an old-school band finding their way back to their roots and amplifying them with a modern touch. You can tell that these tracks came from an early demo just based on the filth spewing from the speakers. Those early 90s death metal demos were magical and what got a lot of these bands their start. Unfortunately for Gaffed, they really didn’t get that buzz. None of that matters though because the boys are back together and they’re feeling themselves! Feeling themselves rot that is.
