Montreal’s Serpent Corpse have a pretty badass name and that’s a great place for a retro death act to start life. And in fact, these lo-fi scuzzbuckets have only just begun living, dropping their first demo in 2021. Blood Sabbath is their official debut and it’s a murky, scabby blend of classic Swedeath, early days Autopsy, grim doom-death, and crustpunk. If there was ever a recipe for success in the deathverse, that particular proprietary blend would seem a solid candidate. But let’s not put the serpent before the corpse here. Will Blood Sabbath be the next big thing? Read on, brave snakeromancers, read on. And bask in that glorious cover art while you do so.
The crusty cretins who make up Serpent Corpse seem to have grown up surrounded by the sounds of death metal’s past, as you’re greeted by a very retro-marinated variant of OSDM on the first proper track “Electric Eye” (no, not a Judas Priest cover). It’s got an unhealthy d-beat at its core decorated with hints of early Amorphis and then splattered by a chum pail full of Autopsy influence. It’s all rough, raw and underproduced, lo-fi and unrefined, but damn it’s a lot of brutish, caveman fun! “Nemesis” takes that strange brew and adds more Scream Bloody Gore, because MOAR gore is always best, and it works a sickly charm. The riffs are simple but big and hooky and the overall product is energetic and confrontational. Elsewhere, “Let the Rats Feed” incorporates more doom into its tar-thick sound, with segues into melancholic leads that sound like they were stolen from Tales from the Thousand Lakes. It’s an effective hodge-podge of influences with real weight and toxic heft.
Album midpoint “Land of Rot and Misfortune” is a plodding, stomping mammoth of a tune with fat chugging riffs and shambling d-beats that feel massive and ungainly. It’s full of dark atmosphere and death-doom magic, though it could be a bit shorter than its 6-plus minutes. The riff-work is highly on point throughout, however. Speaking of riffing, “Crucifixion Shrine” brings the meat hammer to the beef store with fat, bruising riffs that will make all your internal organs external. I can’t get enough of its Neanderthal stupidity and this one will be on the Lifting Playlist ov Steel until the stars fall from the sky. Ginormous closing title track pushes against the Length vs Reward envelope, being effective overall with a nice collection of high poimts and meaty riffs, but running a good 2 minutes too long at 7:29. That said, given the album’s short and sweet 38-minute runtime, Blood Sabbath won’t leave you feeling stretched too thin or dragged too far. The purposefully low-tech production comes direct from where the slime live and it’s a thing of ghastly beauty. Cavernous, full of reverb and verve, it’s just what the material needs for maximum repulsion.
I’m quite taken with Andrew Haddad’s vocals. They’re big, booming, and badass, falling somewhere between vintage Chris Reifert and Kam Lee. His delivery is steeped in echo and reverb and he’s quite upfront in the mix, but it works. Solid vocals aside, it’s the guitarwork from Adam Breault and Chris Lacroix that brings all the bodies to the morgue. Somehow managing to be expansive and minimalist at the same time, this duo have real tricks up their sleeves and a righteous collection of riffs that crush, kill, and destroy the cranium in all the ways you want from death metal. There are some leads that feel very Bolt Thrower-esque and others that could have appeared on Left Hand Path or Everflowing Stream. They expertly purloin the early days of Finnish melodeath for some sadboi flourishes and also adopt haunting, horror film-like solos for maximum carnage. Zachariah Su keeps things grounded with a simple but slick performance behind the kit, anchoring their shaggy corpse shuffle to the ground whilst pounding your head into your ass.
Serpent Corpse show real promise on Blood Sabbath. It sounds rudimentary and raw at first, but repeat listens reveal a wealth of interesting little details and musical tidbits hidden in the muck and mire. By the third trip through the grave haze, I was pretty impressed with what this young act was able to stitch together from the cadavers of the past. It’s just different enough to sound freshly deceased, so if you love OSDM with extra worms and fungus. this could be your rancid summer treat. I can’t seem to stop spinning it and I’m going blood crazy in the heat. A fine companion piece for Rotpit.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Temple of Mystery
Website: serpentcorpse.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: July 5th, 2023
