Vomitrocity "Sea-Sick" CD
[self-released]
I wish these guys would take themselves more seriously, as this is a succinct dose of rather effective death/thrash that actually has some potential, but I just can't get into the silly humor or overly raw presentation or whatever. The CD-R comes in a color xeroxed sleeve that has a silly collage of people vomiting, dead bodies, and a backdrop of sea scenes alongside goofy song titles like "Sex-Deaducation" and such, but the songs themselves are fairly well executed two-minute explosions of blasting tremolo picking runs and retro thrash riffs with a couple of Carcass via Exhumed stylings. Most of the vocals are sneering screams with some lower growls, though on occasion they do sarcastically enter into a forced and (probably intentionally) hokey squealing pig kind of sound. Admittedly some of the speedy passages can get tiresome, but with such short songs they tend to pull it off with occasionally effective grooves such as the intro to "Triple Kiss of Death", or by spicing things up with some chunky midpaced breaks as in "Street Fighting the Dead" (which certainly sounds like Exhumed/Impaled towards the end). Though, for the most part there's not a lot of variety, so expect a pretty heavy dose of tremolo picking death/thrash with loose references to "Reek of Putrefaction" through the eyes of the aforementioned contemporary Carcass worshipping masters. The recording favors the vocals and contains very little bass, but it's not so bad for this particular style. It needs more heaviness and low-end, but I can listen to it, and I've heard far worse from gore grind bands that are actually signed. Were the guitars thicker and louder I think they might be alright, but a general cleaning up of the tones would serve them well since they write some solid riffs. The layout blows, but whatever, at least the band logo is pretty cool. No lyrics are included or anything, but who needs 'em with this stuff? Seriously though, even as a fun sort of band these guys could do well for themselves if they tightened up the performances a touch and put a little more effort into securing a more efficient recording. In that case, my only suggestion would be to mix up the tempos a little more and get rid of the pig squealing vocal junk, because other than that they've got a solid (if formulaic) treatment going on here. It needs work, but they're doing alright for their chosen path. (5/10)
Running time - 9:06, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Street Fighting the Dead]
Vomitrocity - http://www.myspace.com/vomitrocity

This review has been displayed 1416 times.