Disgorge

Suffocation – Hymns from the Apocrypha Review

Suffocation – Hymns from the Apocrypha Review

“Legend has it, if you say Frank Mullen’s name in the mirror three times after dark, the seminal vocalist appears behind you and unleashes an almighty roar into your bloody earholes. For the first time in the lengthy career of the New York brutal death pioneers, the immense, muffled growls of Mullen are absent, as a new era begins in the Suffocation camp.” Old pros restricting airflows.

Exterminated – The Genesis of Genocide Review

Exterminated – The Genesis of Genocide Review

“Look, you know as well as I do that this is going to be brutal death metal. The cover, the band name, the label, and the album title all definitively point in that direction. No amount of clever misdirection can draw anyone who’s spent even twenty minutes listening to some “intro to brutal death metal” playlist astray from this fact. Even the biography of Exterminated – two members, one doing all the guitars and programming the drums, the other doing vocals – screams brutal death metal.” Generic genocide.

Sanguisugabogg – Tortured Whole Review

Sanguisugabogg – Tortured Whole Review

“Unlike what appeared to be three-quarters of death metal internet, I wasn’t truly amazed by Sanguisugabogg’s debut EP Pornographic Seizures. It sounded like brutal death metal with a penchant for thuggish “caveman riffs,” which is contemporary shorthand for “riffs which show an appreciation for Mortician.” Nevertheless, I’m a sucker for pageantry; when the ‘bogg premiered a music video produced by Troma I was firmly committed to hearing their debut full-length Tortured Whole.” Ecelectic Boggaloo.

Devourment – Obscene Majesty Review

Devourment – Obscene Majesty Review

“This album will take years off your life. It is exfoliant, defoliant, supreme scourer of the Earth. You’ve heard death metal before. Maybe you’ve even heard slam. Maybe you’re a total slam fiend; even then, you’re still not prepared for this record. Maybe, just maybe, you’re familiar with Christopher Scotes’s work mapping and visualizing continental drift through time. If you are, recall that about 80 million years ago the Indian subcontinent, until this point a background character in tectonics at large, suddenly jettisons Madagascar to the West and just books it North, plowing into Asia to create the geologic equivalent of the Vulgar Display of Power cover. That’s what Obscene Majesty is like.” Landmassive.

Infuriate – Infuriate Review

Infuriate – Infuriate Review

“2018 has certainly known no famine of death metal. Rather, a plague of quality extremity has swept the year, waging war on every twinkling symphonic injustice thus far. Although, undeniably, my bread and butter, the excess also poses something of a challenge. Namely, sorting the wheat from the chaff; flaying, mottled skin from iron bone. Rising from the sun-drenched soil of Austin, Texas, Infuriate’s self-titled debut represents yet another seismic breach of brutal proportions.” Angry and deadly.

Devangelic – Phlegethon Review

Devangelic – Phlegethon Review

“In what is sure to be a heart-stopping shock to readers, I’m embarking upon a mid-length review of a brutal death metal album from Italy that I’m not terribly fond of. Gasp and swoon though you may, if you survey recent examples of Italian brutal death metal reviewed in this august publication, the Kronos name is not too thick in the ground, and that’s intentional. I’m a devout opponent of the style of brutal death pioneered by Hour of Penance and copied by so many of their Mediterranean peers and do my best to avoid reviewing death bands who play in the style simply because it’s a lose-lose situation.” Death in Venice (or nearby).

Neurogenic – Ouroboric Stagnation Review

Neurogenic – Ouroboric Stagnation Review

“Although death metal forms a sizable chunk of my metal rotation, it’s often maligned offshoot, brutal death, can prove a more awkward pill to swallow and a difficult style to get right. Too often brutal death bands over focus on the sheer obliterating brutality and over-the-top extremity, where decent songwriting becomes an afterthought.” auralboric stagnation?

Visceral Throne – Those Who Have Fallen Beyond the Grace of God Review

Visceral Throne – Those Who Have Fallen Beyond the Grace of God Review

“Here’s something that I haven’t had in a long time when it comes to a review: brevity! Yes, gang, after several reviews of music clocking in anywhere between 50 and 80 minutes, the higher-ups decided it would be a swell gesture to hand me an EP by a young troupe from Indiana called Visceral Throne.” Prepared to be ensnared.