There’s disgusting death metal, there’s brutal death metal, then there’s death metal that walks into a room and makes you wonder if anyone else in that room has a restraining order against it. Autopsy may have pioneered this brand of whiplash, burner phone grooves against parole-violating subject matter, but Jarhead Fertilizer—featuring mostly current or former members of grinders Full of Hell—has taken the campy idea of that putrid stance and added to it a real-world violence. What do you expect when their namesake (and logo style) comes from Dystopia and the track “Jarhead Fertilizer,” a crusty anthem that holds a decidedly anti-military stance. Jarhead’s weapons are different though, imbuing their partner act’s trudging and noisy powerviolence tendencies with heavier-weight, death-addled grooves that set the stage not for cartoon skeletons or zombies but for a rusty-edged ambush in a skeezy back alley. A circle pit would be too comfortable.
Performance is the heart of heavy metal, and death metal is no different. But sometimes that hard-to-grasp heft that defines the brutality of extreme escapades can take a moment to latch. That level of base aggression and simple appearance blew a little by me the first couple times I heard 2021’s Product of My Environment. But over time, hooked by morbid curiosity to its intensity, the incendiary sample choices,1 feverish dips into stone-fisted breakdowns, and reckless drum expression that thunders as both murderous skanks and reluctantly controlled freeform fills, Jarhead won my heart over. Or, rather, they ripped it out, threw it down, and stomped it until it got the message. Acts in similar hardcore/slam space like Snuffed on Sight or Bodybox possess this same skill of maneuvering through remedial rhythms with an elevated stumble, but Jarhead wears it with a harrowing death-aligned roar.
The hammering yet natural flow throughout Carceral Warfare owes its shiv-like precision to smartly timed bursts of heaving death metal. Deep and vibrating animalistic snarls tee-up riffs the way you might hear in a prime Autopsy cut but with a different kind of mania—the voices of beings who grew up in the world that an act like that spat at (“Cell Warrior,” “Mark of the Beast,” “Hysteria”). Despite the viciousness and anger that a straining throat can manifest, Jarhead allows their mangled manifests to run through flush filters and other hazy modulations to denounce the humanity that the world around them tries to present (“Blood of the Lamb,” “Parasitic Pathology”). The landscape built by these primal chugs and carnal hisses oppresses.
A diverse array of media references and sound inclusions offer a unique atmosphere with layers of enjoyment. Opening Carceral Warfare with beats fit for an El-P rager and recalling that grimy, urban malaise in “Torture Cage” infuse an industrial hip-hop edge that’s as threatening as it is unconventional. Continuing to capture the tension of a downcast life, Jarhead pulls samples that highlight the inhumanity of war (“Wrath of Judas”) and call out the many vices (“Carceral Warfare”) of human behavior, even calling upon a tripped-out reading of Revelation 14:9-11 (“Parasitic Pathology”). None of these clips read straight, though, each receiving pitch-shifting, wonky panning, fizzled fades—anything to help these snippets devolve into the grumbling bass and jagged low-end runs that await them.
No matter how far away Carceral Warfare steps away from the traditional oompa bounce and piercing, feral leads of deathgrind, a thuggish tremolo and riff lurk in the shadows. And no matter how far into a societally disgusted message that Jarhead Fertilizer steps, a catastrophic tom barrage and demonic gurgle conjure a crooked-lipped, missing-tooth visage of nihilism. I haven’t a footing for any lyrics across this beatdown—this worldview rests in action not speech. It’s not elevated. It’s diverse enough for its sub-30-minute run. Carceral Warfare’s only question is whether you accept Jarhead Fertilizer in all their scummy glory. And if you don’t? Well, you better learn to sleep with one eye open.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: Stream
Label: Closed Casket Activities | Bandcamp
Website: jarheadfertilizeroc.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: December 8th, 2023
