Canada, Instrumental Technical/Progressive Death Metal

Well, this is certainly more interesting than most of the EPs you see every day, and this is also only the second instrumental death metal band I’ve ever found, Sepia Dreamer being the first. I can also see this and Obscura’s Omnivium going hand in hand.

The best way I can think of describing this sound is  mixture of Rings of Saturn’s Embryonic Anomaly and Obscura’s Omnivium, minus the vocals. Throw in a bit of Sadist’s drum patterns in there and you’ve got a Canadian band mixing influence from the US, Germany and Italy. I’m sure the other acts that influenced this 3-song EP spread around the globe better than peanut butter spreads over chocolate. Every section is inspired perfectly.

The guitar sound is absolutely spot on for the sound these guys aim for. The guitars are both loud and audible in the mix, despite the riffs being more drum-driven. The separate drum volumes are also spot-on.

Musically, these guys are at the caliber that the gods of tech-death play at (Ouraboros, Viraemia, Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy, etc). The guitar fits perfectly with the drums for an unstoppable force during riffs. Just look at the main riff of Refulgent Shadow, the opening song. It’s the sort of drum beat I love getting to write and work with, the guitars are going at it like hell, and the pinch harmonics do nothing but add to the constant rhythm. And all in free metre, it seems.

What strikes me as odd is how the music is so progressive, yet so easy to listen to. It’s not like Dream Theater’s Octavarium or Train of Thought, where the progressive signatures are left unnoticed until the fourth listen. It took me hours before I realised that the verse of These Walls had 3 bars of 6 beats, hen 1 bar of 5, all repeated. But with Antikathera, you notice the free time signatures, but can still headbang pretty solidly to this.

In conclusion, this is the beautifully crafted underdog league of the ever-intriguing world of Canadian technical death metal. A true gem, sadly lost in the rough. These guys deserve more exposure among death metal for what they do, as very riff, every harmony, every discord and conjunct arpeggio is lost in a metropolis of Myspace embedding.

Rating: 10/10

Author: InexorableRotting

Actually, this is exactly the right department, especially for some feedback about the decapitation of cattle. Or Cattle Decapitation, more precisely. These guys have been the buzzword around the TDM laboratories and on this particular Technical Tuesday I would like to look into the albums a bit…in the order that I heard them myself.

Cattle Decapitation band

To preface, this column is going to be completely biased. I have been a long time fan of the band, since the release of their first full length, and I am a vegetarian. In fact, as I type this, I am nerding out and wearing my Cattle Decapitation t-shirt. I might go put a second one just out of principal.

My exposure to the band began with a live track of “I Eat Your Skin,” which I would imagine was put out as a promo by Metal Blade. Initially, I was unaware of the band’s message – pro-vegetarian, anti-human – and simply thought the band had a wicked name, and even more wicked vocals. Vocalist Travis Ryan is, in my opinion, one of the best vocalists in all of metal, regardless of subgenre. His vocals are absolutely animalistic, skin-tearing, gut-wrenching, gore-spilling…all in the best senses of the word. And I was even more shocked to hear that the band used no vocal processing.

Fast forward a small but indeterminate amount of time to the 2002 release of To Serve Man. From Metal Blade Records, Cattle Decapitation’s first full length was fiercely distributed – I picked it up at a local Border’s Books and Music for less than 10$. Even if I hadn’t listened to the band previously I would have picked up the album. I mean seriously, look at that cover (which was unfortunately censored by some vendors). And song titles like “Writhe in Putrescence,” which sound like they are straight out of an old Carcass album. To Serve Man is grade “A” gory death metal. The drums do a solid ratta-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat for nearly 35 minutes of “100% organic” gurgles and grunts that sound, like, well the animals that the band is trying to protect. To Serve Man is one of my favorite death metal albums of all time.

Which brings us to the band’s message. Cattle Decapitation’s lyrical themes frequently are against the consumption of meat. But, in the genre of death metal, that simply would not be enough. No, instead, Cattle Decapitation songs frequently paint a gruesome role reversal, placing the animals into the roll of the humans. For example, the Ten Torments of the Damned demo (the only material by the band I have never heard, since I do not own a record player and see buying the vinyl album as a poor decision) depicts a man with a cow’s head preparing to decapitate a cow with a man’s face. Additionally, Cattle Decapitation is simply anti-human. The human species is far more disgusting than any beast, in the eyes of Cattle Decapitation. However, and I ask this of you, death metal fans and readers, is it really so uncommon for a metal band? Thrash speeds towards nuclear apocalypses, death metal is covered with emerging zombies, and black metal extols nihilism. Is this really, then, that abnormal?

Moving backwards in the band’s catalog from To Serve Man, I ordered the two EPs Human Jerky (1999) and Homovore (2000) from Three.One.G records. It was the first time I utilized a completely blind mail order. The label could have simply never sent me the records and there would have been nothing I could have done. However, send the records they did, and I was soon grinding away to early era Cattle Decapitation. Although they do show flairs of technicality, the two EPs are more in the goregrind region of music, similar to a more technical Exhumed (in their early career), or Hemdale, or Carcass before they cleaned up their sound. Its spastic and gory, and disgusting, and quality grind…in a short dose. My only complaint is the play time – Homovore runs less than 22 minutes, while Human Jerky is only 16.

And so I waited, hoping for more extreme-vegetarian, misanthropy-fueled gore. And in 2004 Metal Blade rewarded my patience with the hideous Humanure. For obvious reasons some record stores and distributors refused to handle Humanure, or censored the cover without permission. As for the sound, Cattle Decapitation returned with as much gore and guts as ever, and some even sicker squeals, but at the same time adding an element of the cosmos. With tech squeals aplenty, Humanure showcased an advanced dissection of the human species, with more emphasis on the stop-and-go, as well as the technicality glimpsed in Homovore and Human Jerky. See track “Earthling,” a churning, spinning, surging, technical, misanthropic anthem: “Disturbing/ disgusting/ revolting/ Structure of cells / Best to have not metastasized / Into this barbaric creature / That you know as yourself.”

USA, Metal Blade Records, Technical Deathgrind

This is an article I wrote a few years past for the then-current release of The Harvest Floor. I thought it seemed particularly relevant with the recent release of the new Cattle Decapitation album Monolith of Inhumanity, which TDM will be doing a staff review on shortly.  This was printed in a publication with approximately five readers that considered themselves fans of metal – one of them being me – hence, the intended audience is not the normal TDM clientele. Aside from the very last sentence, the article remains as it was originally printed. 

Misanthropy is a common theme in death metal. But the hatred of humankind for their crimes against the animal kingdom may be exclusive to Cattle Decapitation, a band of extreme vegans who released their fourth full length album The Harvest Floor this January.

And quite an album it is. Ten tracks of brutal, technical, and absolutely menacing death/grind. This is heavy metal for people who like heavy metal. Amongst an inundation of tepid deathcore bands and cookie-cutter death metal acts, Cattle Decapitation has evolved their style with every release.

The band started as a gore-grind outfit, a side project for members of alternative rockers The Locust. With titles like Homovore and Human Jerky, a not-so-curious listener can imagine what these EPs sounded like. As the band acquired more serious musicians their sound began to change, moving away from the spastic songs less than a minute in length, to a more developed and technical approach to death metal.

With The Harvest Floor, Cattle Decapitation pulls together a seemingly impossible mix of metal. They have all the neck breaking jerks of grindcore, complete with high squeals and low growls. They utilize bludgeoning guitar riffs and squeals typical of death metal. And the drums… new drummer David McGraw plays with enough speed and ferocity to impress even veteran listeners.

Heaviness aside, the band has incorporated bleak melodic sections. These slower sections make for a memorable (and disturbing) listen.
Cattle Decapitation also finds time to invite in a few guest musicians. The Harvest Floor boasts appearances by fellow death metallers Ross Sewage (of Impaled) and Dino Sommese (of Dystopia). In the blender of all this death metal mess, come the electric cello of Jackie Perez Gratz and the electronic skills of John Wiese.

Finally, and the only negative part of the album, Jarboe (of famous group Swans) lends her eerie voice for the title track. Of course the attempt at doing something different is appreciated, but rather than the genre-smashing standout it could be, the second to last song ends up being just a distraction. Ed. – At the time I wasn’t a huge fan of this track, but I have since come to appreciate the creepiness, depth, atmosphere, and almost cinematic effect it brings to the album.

Instead of degrading into the mess of noise and that it could have been, The Harvest Floor is a way for metalheads to start the year off with style. This is the album that fans knew Cattle Decapitation could write, and even though the rest of the band’s albums were excellent in their own right, The Harvest Floor shows the band pulling in numerous stylistic aspects into one gory, creepy, grinding, technical, and overall cohesive whole.

(information on guest musicians from cattledecapitation.com)

Rating: 9/10

Author: Witness to the Void

USA, Deepsend Records, ‘Brutal’ ‘Technical’ Death Metal.

There’s absolutely no need to sugarcoat this; Saprogenic’s ‘The Wet Sound Of Flesh On Concrete’ is one of the most thoroughly mediocre, intentionally over-hyped and laughably lauded Death Metal releases I’ve ever heard. People have heaped praise onto this album as some sort of ‘Planisphærium’-esque ‘transcendence’ of Brutal Death Metal when in reality it’s a poorly produced cluster of wasted potential, horrible drumming and failed songwriting that while actively trying to be more than Brutal Death Metal ends up as something so bankrupt it’s actually a bit pathetic. Unlike other Brutal and Technical Death Metal overlaps/experimentation, Saprogenic has no clear understanding of either genre, their respective strengths and how exactly to play to those strengths while making their own distinctive mark. Someone had the balls to once say ‘She Lay Gutted worships at the altar of Saprogenic’. People who make statements like that IN A DREAM better wake up and apologize, especially if it’s in relation to an album like this, which for some reason or another hasn’t been entirely discarded and forgotten already. Allow me to explain exactly why that should be the case…

First off, (and most unnerving in my opinion) the drumming on this album is ATROCIOUS. Aside from the fact that the drum production is so lo-fi it’s barely above banging on pots and pans, I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a clear and distinct inability to maintain a consistent double bass pattern. The worst part of this is I suspect the drummer fancies himself as the most technically proficient member of the group. There’s a significant difference between chaotic yet disciplined drumming (Malignancy as a for instance) and the genuine inability to play Death Metal drum patterns. This album suffers from the latter and being that the drumming is actually at the forefront of the already inexcusable production, the constant incompetent clattering is more than enough to induce migraines.

Furthermore, the vocals on this album have been mixed so low they’re practically nonexistent at their very worst and tooth gratingly downplayed at their very best. Perhaps that would be excusable if Saprogenic were capable of creating the ‘ominous rumbling’ style of gurgles ala Afterbirth’s ‘Psychopathic Embryotomy’ (which would also require the production savvy to full emphasize that) but of course, that just isn’t so. Instead, ‘The Wet Sound Of Flesh On Concrete’ revels in its cheap Matti Way wannabe, although it seems someone forgot to inform the gurgler in chief that Matti Way not only has one of the most inhuman pitches of any vocalist in Death Metal but also the stamina and durability that kind of pitch necessitates. Hell, even the (barely) passable pitch of the gurgles is entirely inappreciable, which just adds another layer of migraine inducing nonsense.

Perhaps these problems would be minimized to a (fairly) tolerable degree if above all else this album had production value of ANY kind. I’ve heard Norwegian Black Metal demo tapes recorded in basements that are practically Decrepit Birth releases compared to this butchering. I have no problems with lo-fi production (in fact I think Death Metal and certain lo-fi aspects complement one another perfectly) but the folks responsible for ‘The Wet Sound Of Flesh On Concrete’ seemed to think mangling the vocals, emphasizing the terrible drumming beyond any sense, bludgeoning the bass within an inch of its life and only sparing the guitars from a horrible hacksaw studio mix death was a good idea. In fact, the guitar work is really the only worthwhile aspect of this album. (as well as the only reason this album doesn’t get a lower score) There are some very good tremolo riffs to be found here but they’re not worth suffering through everything else just to appreciate them. Thankfully, at only 28 minutes the headache is over quickly and forgotten even faster.

Perhaps in the hands of a competent group of musicians, the idea behind ‘The Wet Sound Of Flesh On Concrete’ could have actually come to fruition (a tremolo riffed, chaotically drummed, inhumanly growled exploration of brutality and technicality) but as it stands, this is Missed Opportunity 101. Any chance of innovation is ultimately destroyed by ridiculously untalented drumming, penny pinching gurgles and a production job that revels in its utter failure so much it becomes the Death Metal equivalent of some horrid student film that’s bad ‘for the sake of art’. Most shamefully of all, there’s nothing in this finished product that hasn’t already been explored in Brutal/Technical Death Metal in an actually compelling way; Brodequin already mastered the art of lo-fi excellence, atmosphere and sonic destruction on 2000′s ‘Instruments Of Torture’ and 2001′s ‘Festival Of Death’ respectively. (In fact, the title track of ‘The Wet Sound Of Flesh On Concrete’ reminds me way too much of about 1:05 into ‘The Virgin Of Nuremberg’ an infinitely superior song) The aforementioned Long Island band Afterbirth both released the very first Slam CD and practically laid the foundation for any and all ‘ominous rumbling’ gurgles to come, doing so with a very bass heavy production I might add. Infantiphagia actually managed to explore more the more experimental sides of both brutality and technicality with only three songs AND Matti Way behind the mic I might add. Any conceivable way you look at it, Saprogenic failed. This album failed and if their actively increasing modern obscurity in the face of bands like Wormed still going strong is any indication, any and all work they produced afterwards failed as well.

In other words…

Rating: 4/10

Author: Goshuggist

Russia, Self-released, Technical Death Metal/Deathcore.

Oh Russian Tech-Death, why must we continue to play this game? I know you’re capable of creating mind-blowing tech-death extravaganzas that give the very best a run for their money (Monumental Torment’s ‘Element Of Chaos’) but then you turn around and start fellating Beneath The Massacre, resulting in a series of bands that could be wonderful tech-death but instead squeal and breakdown like there’s no tomorrow in between constant weedily deedling that makes haters cream themselves for reinforcing their caricature of the genre. (Genocide Of Prescription, Sentenced To Dissection) Even Beneath The Massacre’s finally eased up on their wholehearted ‘wankery’ stereotype embrace, so there’s no excuse for this. Deathcore was never something to emulate in the first place (unless it’s Abiotic but that’s a completely different story) but releasing an album in 2012 as fond of the most commonly derelict, fundamentally broken version of the ‘genre’ as ‘Between The Worlds’ is so blatantly insulting it hurts. The members of Sentenced To Dissection are NOT talentless, so the fact that they revel in creating such an uninspired hybrid makes me seriously question their logic, or lack thereof. Here’s a crazy idea; Russia is also one of the best Slam regions in the entire world…why not create a combo of crushing slams and hyper-technical madness? Why even give standard Deathcore inanities the time of day? I can’t even begin to understand why musicians capable of writing any kind of technical licks would ever resort to merging them with perhaps the most derivative fad metal music has faced since Nu Metal. Of course, not every Deathcore band is Waking The Cadaver, Annotations Of An Autopsy, Suicide Silence or Chelsea Grin but so many of them are that it isn’t even worth the effort to try and make this work.

Remember in my Abiotic review where I said their version of Deathcore worked because it was played with the skill, tenacity and intensity of tech-death? Sentenced To Dissection is almost the complete reverse of that; while they certainly have the technical chops necessary to play some really amazing stuff, they waste their potential on exploring every atrocious element of Deathcore. Hell, I think they even give Genocide Of Prescription a run for their money in that department and that’s saying something given the absolutely ridiculous musical choices they make on a regular basis.  The biggest disappointment this five song release has in store is just when an actually well written riff enters the equation, it’s subsequently ruined by pig squealing, cookie-cutter double bass blasting, some of the worst breakdowns I’ve heard in years or a combination of all three. My honest opinion is the guitarist of this band needs to find himself a new gig. Maybe a band with a capable growler that understands tech-death and generic deathcore are not even close to being compatible. Perhaps an Abnormity meets Origin type of band, that merges Slams and technical noodling, kind of like how Viraemia proved it makes both ideas even better?

As it stands, this release suffers from the exact same problem all weedily-deedily tech-core suffers from; not only does every track sound almost exactly the same but any conviction, interest or actual involvement goes right out the window with the mixture of talent and utter shit. You can polish a turd all you want Sentenced To Dissection, but it’s still a turd. Deathcore is still antithetical to the idea of Origin/Brain Drill style noodling and nothing you say or try to make to the contrary will change that. I’ve been blaming Beneath The Massacre for this perversion of the genre for the longest time but at some point the blame has to fall squarely on the bands that perpetuate this idiocy. I’m looking at you Genocide Of Prescription. Don’t even think you can weasel your way out of this Sentenced To Dissection. You’re all culpable here Every (X) Of/To/As (Y) Band Out Of Russia. When your fellow countrymen in bands like Monumental Torment, Abnormity, Abominable Putridity and 7 H.Target are pushing the boundaries of creativity and progress in their respective niches of Death Metal and you’re still fapping to ‘Mechanics Of Dysfunction’ as some nirvana of technical excellence, you’re holding back the genre. You’re perpetuating the idea that following is better than leading, that innovation is a dirty word. That’s the greatest offense of your music and indeed the music of every band that can be just as easily switched out in your place. For shame.

If I ever check out a release of yours again (which is unlikely) perhaps you can try to create something distinctly your own, something that hasn’t become a cliche of your region? Either that or fade into the irrelevance you and Genocide Of Prescription are cultivating. That’s your choice. My choice is to blast some ‘Irreversible Disintegration’ and listen to some actual trailblazers. By the time ‘Shattered To The Bone’ is over, I have a feeling I won’t even remember this release, which is exactly what happens when you fail to put any effort into music so technically proficient.

Rating: 3/10

Author: Goshuggist

Rings Of Saturn are back and they’re packing an even bigger whallop than their debut, which was already extremely impressive. Sure, it still doesn’t sound like they’ve done away with all of the unnecessary breakdowns and hell, their new vocalist got famous on Youtube thanks to Deathcore covers but by some twist, this is still lightyears beyond anything they’ve done until now. (No pun intended)

As a significant plus, Ron Casey of Flesh Consumed, Vaginal Discharge and Quantum Catastrophe era Brain Drill is now the drummer and already there’s an improvement, even on this five minute sampler. His blasts, fills and double bass work sound as crisp and bludgeoning as ever and in coordination with Joel Omans’ and Lucas Mann’s unfathomably talented shredding, I see amazing things in even the direct future for Rings Of Saturn. (Seeing them live in six days might have something to do with that) If the direction of this sample is to be believed, it might even possible for Rings Of Saturn to carve out a piece of the already crowded US technical supremacy for themselves. They have a ways to go before they approach the level of Origin, Brain Drill or Viraemia, but with every new development they get closer and closer to realizing just that. Even as a hardcore tech freak, there are distinct moments in this sampling that kicked the crap out of my mind and forced my jaw onto the floor. I still don’t see the need for any breakdowns, but somehow they’ve been integrated much more gracefully than on ‘Embryonic Anomaly’. That doesn’t mean I suddenly approve (Don’t break down, Slam! Slam damn you!) but fortunately even though the breakdowns are still present they aren’t nearly as intrusive.

The biggest question for a lot of folks is how is Ian Bearer, the fresh faced new vocalist for the band? I’m happy to report than even without the awesome lows of Peter Pawlak, Ian simply fits the new dynamic of the band better. He’s got vocal chops for damn sure. Even though it’s not necessarily my style of vocals (I’ve been spoiled by 90′s New York Death Metal) Ian knows exactly what he’s doing and has the power, stamina and endurance to back it up. I greatly respect that. At only a year older than I am, I also have to give him major props for landing in such a promising outfit at such a young age. I hope to get my band up and running within a similar time frame.

All in all, this is just about the best sample from Rings Of Saturn’s new album that anyone, fan or newcomer could have asked for. Whenever it ends up dropping, I look forward to hearing the whole thing and possibly even being part of a staff review for it. (hint hint nudge nudge) In five minutes, Rings Of Saturn have utterly annihilated their debut. There’s only one conceivable explanation for that…

France, Listenable Records, Technical Death Metal

In my opinion, Gorod is a leading technical death metal group. They fits easily in twenty of my favorite bands, and so it is since the release of “Neurotripsicks”, under the name of Gorgasm. “A Perfect Absolution” is already fourth release from them. Speaking of which that isn’t too innovative or that it is a “typical” tech death it’s a bit of misunderstanding. Boys show a remarkable tumbling by the whole 40 minutes. They cleverly juggle between brutal vocals and melodic solos. They’re breaking the tempo in various critical points of compositions and at different time intervals. This is a very controlled, technical art of writing metal that has all the characteristics of universality and influences of other genres. These include, among other things – progressive metal (see “Carved In The Wind”) and neo-classical death metal (eg, “Elements and Spirit”). We can also find some jazzy moments but nothing significant.

“A Perfect Absolution” is a total metal and complete in every detail. Do not expect any conceptual mishaps because this album fills the center of ear canal at 100%. Sometimes dangerously revolves around a single patent, but will not go into boredom. It is rather a respite from the relentless intensification techniques. Lyrics are the interesting thing in here. Generally they’re treat about the history of the Iskorosten siege (capital Derewlans – later Korosten) in Ukraine and the cult of Perun in Rus. Thus, for example, in the composition “5000 At The Funeral” we hear the story of 5,000 inhabitants burned alive in a bath Korostenia who were drunk with mead. In the first track “Birds of Sulphur” we learn about the tragic end of that town – when the Russians released pigeons with burning material fastened to their tails. Reverse chronology is a little strange but you can dump it on the concept idea, like in the movies.

The new album by the French team is not only way to play a thousand notes. It’s an interesting concept, well thought out from top to bottom and giving a lot of pleasure from intercourse with complex structures. He can surprise but also gives a break. Sophisticated and ambitious piece of metal. I recommend!

Rating: 10/10

Author: Rimmon

What can I say… A must have album! Review is being done!

WHEN: On May 23rd, 1995, metal music received one of its crowning achievements from Roadrunner Records.

WHERE: Morrisound Recording in Tampa, Florida.

WHY IT’S A CLASSIC: I’m positive the last line of the ‘Who’ section certainly got your attention, which is why I shortened the ‘When’ and ‘Where’ sections so you can jump straight here and I can explain myself in greater detail. First things first, I’m sure there are some readers who are surprised that I consider Suffocation the greatest Death Metal band of all time. Is there really any other choice when you get right down to it? Cryptopsy would have been the closest second place if ‘None So Vile’ wasn’t the end of their dominance. Gorguts has been on hiatus so long I wonder if I’ll ever get to hear a snippet of their rumored latest LP. Demilich could have even beaten both if ‘Nespithe’ wasn’t their only release. Same goes for Lykathea Aflame and ‘Elvenefris’. The most important question to ask when thinking about a ‘greatest band’ or ‘greatest album’ is how much influence has that band/album had on the entire genre, does it stand the test of time and outside of their very best, how many dips in quality does their discography feature? Suffocation’s influence is undeniable to anyone who can rub two brain cells together, ‘Pierced From Within’ kicks the shit out of anything Death Metal released since 1995 (even in close fights) and there really isn’t a significant dip in quality at any point in their history. If your immediate reaction is to bring up ‘Breeding The Spawn’ or their self titled 2006 album I say a pox on your house and ears for parroting nonsense! Any and all reasons you could come up with for Suffocation NOT being the greatest Death Metal band of all time have surely been proven false. If there’s a brutal riff you really love, chances are Suffocation already wrote it. They are, for all intents and purposes, the Black Sabbath of Brutal Death Metal, with one of the best track records for quality any band has ever had.  ’Pierced From Within’ works on every conceivable level because it functions on every conceivable level. Looking for mind blowing technical prowess? It scarcely manifests itself in the legendarily influential way Terrance Hobbs, Doug Bohn, Chris Richards and Doug Cerrito manifested it here these days. Looking for soul crushing brutality? You’ve found the Mecca. Every track on this album will destroy any previous expectations of anything and everything Death Metal. ‘Pierced From Within’ churns, gnashes and annihilates but it also envelops, astounds, fascinates and dazzles. At no point in all of the times I’ve listened to and replayed ‘Pierced From Within’ have I ever found fault in any of the compositions on display. This is Death Metal’s magnum opus and those who deny Suffocation’s rightful place at the top should check their premises.

HOW: As I briefly mentioned above, ‘Pierced From Within’s greatest success is the unification of every conceivable element a Death Metal fanatic could ever want without sacrificing the power of any last piece. Frank Mullen, who was one of the first to usher in the Death Growl as we know it today turns in one of the absolute best vocal performances Death Metal has ever seen; the juxtaposition of his masterful enunciation and bellowing pitch result in the best death growls short of the complete inhumanity of vocalists like Matti Way and Phlegeton. Terrance Hobbs has always been one of my  favorite guitarists and if you look nowhere else to understand why, look to ‘Pierced From Within’.  Every riff the man writes is genius and only serves to make me weak in the knees. Doug Cerrito and Chris Richards round off the stringed assault with savage secondary guitar and indomitable bass but the real underdog of the album is Doug Bohn on drums, filling in for Mike Smith. He proves himself more than worthy as a substitution, never missing a blast or fill and always staying on top of things.

Really, I could rave about this album forever (which is probably why this took so long to write) but I’ll end my piece with this; in every genre of music, there are always a select few bands/musicians/composers that not only define the genre as a whole but set the standard for said genre for years to come. Baroque Music has Bach, Jazz has Miles Davis and Death Metal has Suffocation. Since 1990, the band has done nothing but consistently amaze, continually innovate and leave even their most dedicated students/devotees in the dust. Here’s to many more years of being at the very top, destroying posers and delivering only the most exquisite gems of brutal, technical excellence.

Fuck yeah. \m/

From new album “Earth-Sick” released April 16th 2012 through Bakerteam Records.