I'm so glad this band got signed to Razorback. The totally unrepentant Carcass worship displayed on their demo really caught my ear, and all I could think was, "Oh yeah, this band should be on Razorback..." and now they are. And if that's not cool enough, two of the three band members are actual medical examiners, while the third is presently in medical school. Rock on. With this 12-track CD the trio continues to pay homage to the almighty Carcass (in their early years, mind you) with short tracks of filthy gore grind complete with a multiple vocal onslaught of fucked up high screams, low growls, etc. It sounds like they gargled with broken glass before doing the vocals... either that or recorded with throats full of Jell-O! Nasty stuff. What does it sound like? Carcass, damnit! "Reek of Putrefaction" and "Symphonies of Sickness". And the band is proud of it, as well they should be! That really says it all. Though it's also worth noting that "Y-Shaped Thoracoabdominal Incision" includes some guest appearances from members of Exhumed and Cretin, and the song fucking kills... The only thing that's sort of hurting them is the fact that the production needs an overhaul. The drums are really thin and a bit rigid, there's not enough bass in the mix at all, the vocals are way too loud, and despite the fact that the guitar tone is heavy and has some awesome texture, there's too much weird treble/midrange overshadowing its better half. They need to sound raw, but it needs to be thicker than this. The drums need some warmth, the guitars don't need all those high-end tones, the bass needs to be right on the heels of the guitars, and the vocals need to be drowning in the music instead of out in front of it. Like their demo, this disc comes in a jewel case wrapped in a specimen bag, though here it's folded over and sealed shut with a black and white sticker that reads "Warning! Putrescible Decibels Inside". I don't know if that's how all of the copies are packaged or not, but it's a damn nice touch. The cover art is not unlike Carcass' first two records with a bit more color: A gory collage of bloody, battered, and bruised body parts encircled by the band name and album title, and another collage of rubber gloves. Inside the lengthy lyrical passages are included in small type amongst images of bones and more rubber gloves. What would you expect from the lyrics? Yep. "Extravasated hemoglobular vitality, Vascular death, hematological finale, The postmortem settling of blood called lividity, A fascinating aspect of PMI morbidity..." You get the picture. Medical jargon galore... and they actually know what they're talking about! This band is right up there in the ranks of the better Carcass clones, and with a stronger recording they could probably damn near reach the top of the list in no time.
[Razorback]
Running time - 29:42, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Medicocriminal Entomology, NH2(CH2)4NH2 & C5H14N2 (Putrescine & Cadaverine), Algor Mortis: The Linear Rate of Cadaveric Cooling, Y-Shaped Thoracoabdominal Incision]
Razorback Records - http://www.razorbackrecords.com
