The Slam Death Metal Thread

Devourment - "Obscene Majesty" (2019)

The sixth full-length from Dallas-based slam death metal stalwarts Devourment is one of the better examples of the subgenre you'll find. For starters, it doesn't have one of those pinging snare sounds that seem to be so common in the slam scene these days which can only be a good thing in my opinion. The instrumentation is utterly brutal throughout with the plethora of high quality mid-tempo slam sections paying repeated homage to Suffocation's legendary "Effigy Of the Forgotten" album. The production is as dense, dark & dank as you'll find anywehere (think Incantation & Immolation) & will no doubt be a polarizing element of the record but i think it works very well for the most part. There are no solos whatsoever & the blast beats are of the ridiculously fast variety only they're the clear weakness for the band as they do sound pretty loose the vast majority of the time. Perhaps that's why Devourment concentrate more of their time on the slams then I would guess. Ruben Rosas' vocals are as gutteral & croaky as you'll find in extreme metal & are certainly not for everyone. In fact, while Devourment may be the Metallica of the slam death metal scene, I'm under no misapprehensions that any of our other contributing members will have any time for a record like this one & I'm not gonna go & recommend it to anyone. Death metal doesn't get any more death metal than this so you're either all in or your not in at all. You see "Obscene Majesty" doesn't try to be different or special in any way. That's simply not the point. It's intended as a celebration of pure brutality & I think it serves that purpose admirably.

For fans of Cephalotripsy, Abominable Putridity & Kraanium.

4/5

For this weekend's top ten list I decided to go with the niche subgenre of slam death metal so here's my all-time top ten:

01. Pathology – “The Time Of Great Purification” (2012)

02. Abominable Putridity – “The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin” (2012)

03. Devourment – “Obscene Majesty” (2019)

04. Devour The Unborn – “Consuming The Morgue Remains” (2012)

05. Disfiguring The Goddess – “Sleeper” (2012)

06. Pighead – “Rotten Body Reanimation” (2012)

07. Coprophiliac – “Whining Bitch Treatment” (2012)

08. Devourment - "Molesting The Decapitated" (1999)

09. Delusional Parasitosis/Ecchymosis/Dissevered/Bleeding – “Scaphism 4-Way Split” (2017)

10. 7 H.Target – “Fast-Slow Demolition” (2012)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/145

Feel free to post yours.

Devourment = "Molesting The Decapitated" (1999)

After putting together yesterday's list I felt like indulging in some slamming death metal while driving around the city to pick up one of my wife's event styling jobs so I pulled out this oldy that I haven't heard for a while. It was extremely influential in the underground death metal scene at the time but I didn't get to experience it until around 2009, by which time every man & his dog was doing this stuff so it had lost some of its impact. Honestly, nothing has changed much with how this Dallas-based outfit conduct themselves in the more than two decades since this debut album. "Molesting The Decapitated" concentrates entirely on two concepts: ultra-fast blast beats with a super-tight pinging snare drum sound & slow-to-mid-paced Suffocation-worshipping slam riffs. That really does sound very good to me on paper & in honesty I was always going to find this record enjoyable for that reason but it's definitely not without its flaws. Firstly, the blast beats aren't very tightly performed, particularly the gravity-blasts which is no doubt accentuated by the snare sound which sounds like a toy monkey playing a tiny drum. Secondly, the vocals are ridiculously gutteral & unintelligible to the point of ridiculousness & there's been no attempt whatsoever to resemble the actual lyrics which are admittedly some of the most vile & putrid you'll ever read. As with 2019's "Obscene Majesty", the lack of guitar solos is a clear missed opportunity too as there's very little to break up the monotony. All things considered though, I just love super-brutal death metal with chunky riffs & it's hard to argue against this album possessing those attributes in spades, even if it does sound very generic by today's standards. "Molesting The Decapitated" does easily enough to keep me interested & in doing so has managed to usurp Kraanium's "Post Mortal Coital Fixation" by breaking into the top ten slam death metal releases list I only put together yesterday.

For fans of Cephalotripsy, Abominable Putridity & Kraanium.

3.5/5

Abominable Putridity - "The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin" (2012)

I thought I'd give the sophomore album from this Russian slam death metal outfit a revisit this week after really fucking digging it at the time of release. It hasn't quite made the same impact on this occasion & I've dropped it back a half star as a result but I still can't deny that it's somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me given my background in the brutal death metal scene. You know exactly what to expect as there's nothing new whatsoever on offer here. It's pretty much an entire album of slam breakdowns modelled on "Effigy Of The Forgotten" period Suffocation with a super gutteral & completely unintelligible vocalist, only the production is super crisp & the performances are as perfect as you'll ever find. In fact, I'd be very surprised if the drums haven't been programmed as they're simply too precise to be human but if that's the case they've done a wonderful job of it as there's a lot of complexity & nuance about it. The vocals are definitely the weak point here & I think this could have been an amazing record if there had been some attempt at actual words. It's also true that all of the tracks meld into one as there's very little variation of display but this is offset by the fact that the run time is limited to a ridiculously short 25 minutes which makes it the perfect length for a short & undeniably fun blastfest. I'm absolutely certain that I'll be the only contributing member that enjoys this album as I simply can't go past well produced brutal death metal but you know what... sue me!

For fans of Devourment, Pathology & Katalepsy.

4/5

Dripping - "Disintegration of Thought Patterns During a Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss" (2002)

New Jersey's Dripping clearly didn't take themselves too seriously as this short 21 minute novelty release draws together some particularly brutal if fairly generic slam death metal (complete with ultra-fast grind blast-beat sections, exaggerated Suffocation-style slam riffs & dual vocals featuring high-pitched screams & super-gutteral extended pig grunts) with techy melodic parts that remind me of Atheist & then layers a whole bunch of abstract samples that have no place in an extreme metal release over the top. Does it all work? Well, in a word no it doesn't... but that doesn't mean it's not a fun listen. The blast-beats suffer from the same issue that I have with 99% of the BDM artists that attempt to go this fast in that they struggle for power & precision. I greatly prefer a vocalist that attempts to make actual words too while the production isn't real flash. But strangely I can't divert my attention away from this car crash of an album. It's quirky & childish but somewhat endearing at the same time.

3.5/5

Waking The Cadaver - "Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler" (2007)

Many of you are probably aware that one of the main reasons that Ben & I started the Metal Academy brand in the first place was to combat the atrocious bias displayed by the global metal market, particularly towards specific sub-sections of the metal audience. RateYourMusic is a prime example of this with their charts tending to be dominated by particular subgenres while others are unanimously panned more for being associated with their subgenre than for being a poor example of its type. Well, New Jersey slam deathcore outfit Waking The Cadaver have suffered from this affliction more than most & are widely regarded as one of the least popular bands on RYM despite being one of the more popular artists in the slam death metal scene. I wasn't familiar with their much-maligned 2007 debut album "Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler" before so I thought I'd challenge myself to see just how bad it could be. I forced myself to keep an open mind & made every effort to remove any preconceptions or bias from my mind throughout the process.

So what did I find? Well, let's start by stating that (despite the general consensus indicating otherwise) this is much more of a slam record than it is a deathcore one. Sure, there are breakdowns galore but those were common-place in the slam scene well before the deathcore kids adopted them which seems to have fooled a lot of the less experienced listeners out there. I mean if you don't like slam (which accounts for 99% of metalheads) then you'll stand absolutely no chance with this record & that fact alone will no doubt have contributed significantly to this album's demise. Secondly, Waking The Cadaver have some brutal & chunky riffs at times. That's a fact that needs to be recognized. But where the problems lie is in a) the completely indecipherable & overly gutteral (in the literal sense of the sound of water going down a drain) pig squeals that consistently go "Bbbrreeeeeeeee" throughout the album & b) the total lack of any drumming skills displayed by the man behind the kit who simply can't play a blast-beat to save his life & has this flaw exacerbated by one of those tinny, light-weight snare sounds that stands out very obviously in the mix. I could overcome the obviously generic nature of the Suffocation-style slam riffs & the super-predictable deathcore breakdowns if not for those two elements which leave a general stain on the album. It all just reeks of a band that weren't quite ready to record a proper release yet. I'm not too sure if they've since matured as musicians but it would have been interesting to see what this record sounded like if performed by someone more competent.

Is "Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler" really as bad as it's made out to be though? Look, if slam death metal & deathcore breakdowns aren't your thing then there's absolutely no doubt that your feelings will tend to align with the general consensus. In fact, you're likely to be repulsed by it with every fiber of your being. But if you like those particular subgenres of metal then this is really just another meaningless release in a scene that's completely flooded with them & it certainly doesn't deserve to be singled out merely due to it's being so focused on celebrating the elements that people hate about certain scenes. Personally, I can overcome some of those annoyances & see that there's some fun to be had here. Slam death metal shouldn't be overthought after all. Do I genuinely enjoy this release? No, not really. I love the intro track which sets the scene nicely but other than that there's really only one song that I find myself returning to i.e. "Type a Secretor". On the other hand though, this is far from the worst thing I've heard either because I'm an undeniable sucker for a chunky slam riff. I'd just encourage people to stick to their lanes when it comes to a record like this because its certainly not trying to change the world so comparing it with releases that are is a fruitless exercise with an inevitable outcome.

P.S. Tongue-in-cheek track titles like "Pigtails Are for Face Fucking" are certainly fun but do we really need to sit through 53 seconds of the band smoking bongs in the middle of the album?

3/5

Devourment - "Butcher The Weak" (2006)

I first became aware of Dallas-based slam death metal establishment Devourment back in 1997/98 through their “Impaled” demo which I picked up through the tape trading scene. I remember really digging it too although I’d start my decade-long sabbatical from the metal scene shortly afterwards & wouldn’t return to metal until 2009 when I’d immediately looked to catch up on what I’d missed from my beloved brutal death metal scene. The band’s 1999 debut album “Molesting The Decapitated” would be my first point of call as many a pundit seemed to be claiming it as a seminal record for the scene at the time. On paper that album was always going to appeal to my particular taste profile however it certainly wasn’t without its flaws which left me wondering whether Devourment would improve on those with subsequent releases, particularly given the long period between their debut & the release of their sophomore album “Butcher The Weak”. The gap was mainly due to the incarceration of guitarist Ruben Rosas (ironically on the day that “Molesting The Decapitated” was released) which triggered a series of splits & reformations that would derail Devourment's immediate plans for world domination but “Butcher The Weak” would finally see the light of day as an independent release in 2005. Devourment would be picked up by Minnesota label Brutal Bands shortly afterwards though & the label would facilitate the re-recording of the whole record so there are technically two versions of this release, the second & arguably more accepted version being the one I’m reviewing today.

Those that were familiar with “Molesting The Decapitated” prior to checking out “Butcher The Weak” likely weren’t surprised by what they heard as its successor doesn’t try to change the formula much but it does manage to improve on it a touch. There were a number of obstacles I faced in my appreciation of Devourment’s first up effort & the completely unintelligible, ultra-gutteral drainpipe vocal performance was certainly one of them. Bassist Mike Majewski has taken over the microphone duties from Rosas this time with the former front man opting to take on all of the guitars instead but the result is still the same with Majewski making very little attempt to enunciate his words. This will definitely be a dealbreaker for those metalheads not already accustomed to slam/brutal death metal as you’ll rarely hear a more overt example of that technique than you do here, at least not from a vocalist that’s not using a vocoder like is commonly the case with the goregrind scene. The other major issue I had with the debut was the sloppy drumming & tightly-wound, pinging snare drum sound. Thankfully new drummer Eric Park has been gifted with a much more natural & powerful snare sound this time which makes the whole record a lot more easily digestible. Unfortunately though, Park doesn’t seem to be much better than former skinsman Brad Fincher at performing blast beats & gravity blasts so you’ll still find a lot of examples where Park struggles to keep up with the rest of the band once the tempo starts to reach light-speed.

Thankfully though, Devourment are at their best when they’re sticking to their signature slow-to-mid tempo slam riffs & you’ll do well to find a more obvious example of the slam death metal sound than this particular record as it doesn’t hold back at all in presenting its differentiating element. I’ve always been a sucker for the heavily palm-muted, Suffocation-style breakdown & Devourment have made a career out of replicating it through as many different variations on the theme as they can come up with. It might not be the most original or creative mode of attack but I inevitably find my body reacting in positive ways so who the fuck am I to question it, particularly when used in conjunction with some well placed double kick work. Could “Butcher The Weak” have done with some spasmatic guitar solos to help the tracks reach greater heights? Shit yeah it could have but I’ve said that about all of the Devourment records I’ve reviewed to date so I’m relatively at peace with it at this point.

So just where does “Butcher The Weak” sit as far as Devourment’s discography & the overall slam death metal scene goes? Well, I’d argue that it’s a minor improvement on “Molesting The Decapitated” & one of the better examples of the slam death sound you’ll find. It would take the band thirteen years to top it with 2019’s “Obscene Majesty” album being Devourment’s finest full-length in my opinion. If you hate slam death metal then this record ain’t gonna change that in the slightest. In fact, it’ll likely further repel you if I’m being honest but fans of bands like Abominable Putridity, Kraanium & Internal Bleeding will no doubt find a fair bit to enjoy in “Butcher The Weak”.

3.5/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Slam Death Metal Releases of All Time list:

01. Pathology – “The Time Of Great Purification” (2012)

02. Abominable Putridity – “The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin” (2012)

03. Devourment – “Obscene Majesty” (2019)

04. Devour The Unborn – “Consuming The Morgue Remains” (2012)

05. Disfiguring The Goddess – “Sleeper” (2012)

06. Pighead – “Rotten Body Reanimation” (2012)

07. Coprophiliac – “Whining Bitch Treatment” (2012)

08. Devourment - "Butcher The Weak" (2006)

09. Devourment - "Molesting The Decapitated" (1999)

10. Delusional Parasitosis/Ecchymosis/Dissevered/Bleeding – “Scaphism 4-Way Split” (2017)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/145

Katalepsy - "Autopsychosis" (2013)

The slam death metal subgenre can be a jarring prospect for even the most hardened of death metallers at times. There are a number of challenges that you must first overcome if you're to connect with this super-extreme form of metal & I have to admit that, even though I’m no doubt Metal Academy’s resident slam death metal aficionado, I still find myself struggling with some of the acts that flaunt the subgenre’s less appealing characteristics in the most overt fashion. The tight, pinging snare drum sound, the ultra-deep, completely indecipherable vocals & the fairly generic slam breakdowns can all be pretty repulsive to the casual listener & I can certainly understand why, even if I’m able to look past these failings for the most part. This is what’s so great about the 2013 sophomore album from Russian five-piece Katalepsy as they’ve chosen to dilute or omit those elements to create a much more agreeable & palatable brand of death metal.

“Autopsychosis” sees Katalepsy drawing almost as much influence from my beloved brutal death metal sound as it does the slam one to be honest which is probably a major contributor to why I like it so much. Current 7.H Target front man Igor Filimontsev’s death growls may be unimaginably deep but they also maintain a monstrous quality that transcends the limitations of slam most of the time & are subsequently a more appealing prospect. The production job is very good indeed & there’s no sign of ping in the snare drum sound at all which is a significant relief to this particular extreme metal nut. The band also reach outside the confines of their chosen genre for inspiration at times, indulging in regular dalliances with the technical death metal subgenre along the way. The flashy burst of technicality may not be the most artistically creative undertakings you’ll find but they do add an additional layer of sophistication to a subgenre that can often sound more than a little dumb. There’s even a fairly melodic progressive interlude included which creates nice change of pace towards the back end of the tracklisting.

There’s a lot to like about “Autopsychosis” actually & it represents one of the better slam releases I’ve encountered. The slam elements don’t sit all that far away from my favourite artists from the genre like Pathology & fellow Russians Abominable Putridity while the more straight-up brutal stuff is in line with Cerebral Bore. You’ll do well to identify any sort of blemish in the tracklisting as the eleven tracks are all of roughly the same quality, making this an extremely consistent release that should tempt more than the odd extreme metal fan across into uncharted slam waters.

4/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Slam Death Metal Releases of All Time list which sees the Delusional Parasitosis/Ecchymosis/Dissevered/Bleeding split album being pushed out:

01. Pathology – “The Time Of Great Purification” (2012)

02. Abominable Putridity – “The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin” (2012)

03. Devourment – “Obscene Majesty” (2019)

04. Katalepsy - "Autopsychosis" (2013)

05. Devour The Unborn – “Consuming The Morgue Remains” (2012)

06. Disfiguring The Goddess – “Sleeper” (2012)

07. Pighead – “Rotten Body Reanimation” (2012)

08. Coprophiliac – “Whining Bitch Treatment” (2012)

09. Devourment - "Butcher The Weak" (2006)

10. Devourment - "Molesting The Decapitated" (1999)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/145

So I've actually listened to my first uber-violent death metal album:

Ecchymosis - Ritualistic Intercourse Within Abject Surrealism (2020)

Considering how long this has been in the top five slam albums on RYM's charts, it seemed pretty obvious to me that this album was highly regarded as a slam classic.  Unfortunately, I don't judge slam the way most people do, but rather the same way I judge every album in any known genre on this planet, so I knew there was a strong chance I would see things differently.  And lo and behold, it didn't really appeal to me.  The album makes an immediate point of gruesome heaviness, which is quite impressive.  But I find nothing more innovative or interesting about this album than I do with the average slam album.  Ecchymosis came very late to the slam scene as far as partaking in the originality department goes, so every song just sounds like a cheaply-written blast of well-produced heaviness and that's that.

6/10

So I've got 6 more albums to go before my list of every album I've heard is lowered to exactly 20% metal, but even then I still have to be careful.  So I'm gonna spend the day listening to asstons of short vaporwaves albums while working on Nialoca illustrations and managing the Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown thread.  Even then I still have to get some stuff ready for work tomorrow and get ready to go to bed at 9 because I work an early shift.  I get my eight house no matter what.

The point?  After all that, I'll be heading over to the next Ecchymosis album.  They've got one more studio album released and a third one in the works.  Let's hope this other one lives up to the hype.  Btw, head a few Devourment songs from different albums.  Not bad.

Ecchymosis - Aberrant

Amusement in Cadaveric Vomitplay (2016)

Yeah, this pretty much played out like I expected.  In comparison to their sophomore album, this debut uses the snare drums to bring in a sense of complexity with their absurd heaviness, and the production's a little more polished than their next album.  But overall, it makes the same mistakes.  The songs are repetitive and rely too much on heaviness and an abundance of occasionally unpredictable snare drum techniques.  The drumming is the main focus while everyhting else can't even compare.

6.5/10

Devourment = "Molesting The Decapitated" (1999)

After putting together yesterday's list I felt like indulging in some slamming death metal while driving around the city to pick up one of my wife's event styling jobs so I pulled out this oldy that I haven't heard for a while. It was extremely influential in the underground death metal scene at the time but I didn't get to experience it until around 2009, by which time every man & his dog was doing this stuff so it had lost some of its impact. Honestly, nothing has changed much with how this Dallas-based outfit conduct themselves in the more than two decades since this debut album. "Molesting The Decapitated" concentrates entirely on two concepts: ultra-fast blast beats with a super-tight pinging snare drum sound & slow-to-mid-paced Suffocation-worshipping slam riffs. That really does sound very good to me on paper & in honesty I was always going to find this record enjoyable for that reason but it's definitely not without its flaws. Firstly, the blast beats aren't very tightly performed, particularly the gravity-blasts which is no doubt accentuated by the snare sound which sounds like a toy monkey playing a tiny drum. Secondly, the vocals are ridiculously gutteral & unintelligible to the point of ridiculousness & there's been no attempt whatsoever to resemble the actual lyrics which are admittedly some of the most vile & putrid you'll ever read. As with 2019's "Obscene Majesty", the lack of guitar solos is a clear missed opportunity too as there's very little to break up the monotony. All things considered though, I just love super-brutal death metal with chunky riffs & it's hard to argue against this album possessing those attributes in spades, even if it does sound very generic by today's standards. "Molesting The Decapitated" does easily enough to keep me interested & in doing so has managed to usurp Kraanium's "Post Mortal Coital Fixation" by breaking into the top ten slam death metal releases list I only put together yesterday.

For fans of Cephalotripsy, Abominable Putridity & Kraanium.

3.5/5

Now for my review, excluding the ugliest album ever ever.

OK, it was very heavy for its time, and kind of unique.  But I never judge an album for its influence.  I'll respect the influence, but I won't use it to judge the music.  It's like what has been aforemention not just by Daniel's review here, but by others: this sounds generic by today's standards.  Why?  Is it because everyone's just copying it?  Partly, but people do the same with the great Ramones debut, which was repetitive but also kind of diversified and ccatchy.  Punk rock was completely new.  This is just a heavier expansion of an already extremely extreme genre pioneered by Suffocation, who remain my favorite brutal death metal band for their three five star works, Effigy of the Forgotten, Pierced from Within and Human Waste.  I avoided Devourment and Echymosis for their obscenely violent lyrics for ages, but I'm caring less and less overtime if it's guttural and unintelligible, but I still went looking for slam acts that didn't have as much violence, and composed a top 50 or so.  So I've got enough albums to compare this one to not just from a brutality perspective, but a writing perspective.  And I have to say that this greatly pails in comparison to Suffocation, who joined Cryptopsy in bringing technicality and brutality together to create something high on imagination and extremity.  The Devourment debut, however, is basically the audio chronicle of a bunch of stupid 20-somethings trying to be as dark, heavy and edgy as possible and relying on that to help.  If it worked for Wes Craven (it actually didn't), it'll work for them, right?  From an influential perspective, yes.  But all of the songs here are samey and copied to the point of no redemption, and the faint moments of creativity are greatly overshadowed by the generic death metal behavior.  Basically, even if the album was heavier to the point of inventing a new subgenre of brutal death metal, it still feels like generic brutal death metal, slam differences aside like the fixation of snare drums.  Basically, stick with Suffocation, because if you play this and Human Waste back to back, hopefully you'll find a greater sense of technical achievement, unless you're just flat-out hypnotized by the idea of heaviness and edginess like a poser.  Devourment basically took Cannibal Corpse's gimmick to a new level, except from what I hear, Cannibal Corpse was better.

5.5 / 10

Devourment - Butcher the Weak (2005)

Today I'm gonna get through both versions of Butcher the Weak.  If you want total, raw heaviness, then this album is a major improvement over the already further step of heaviness from brutal death that their debut was.  I ever noticed early on that there were some improvements to the rhythmic aspects of their music.  The heaviness, however impressive, still has a habit of acting as a wall to drown out some of the more creative aspects.  And as a result, it can be seen that Devourment are still guilty of the very same mistake of sameyness that many death metal albums, including their debut, follow.  Instead of showcasing everything slam death can do, they decide to throw around a few creative ideas per song, not realizing that many songs share the same ideas, and let heaviness do the rest of the talking.  Sure, there are occasionally clearer songs that only have a few moments of raw heaviness, like Serial Cocksucker.  But songs like Tomb of Scabs have almost no actual writing aspects, and just maniacally beat music on the head with Goblimon's studded cudgel rather than focusing on songwriting.  But overall the album feels more like another exercise with heaviness with just enough of a creative improvement to keep the band's career strong.  It's kind of like the difference between Symphony X's first two albums: Symphony X and The Damnation Game.  I'd give both sets of albums about the same ratings.  So if you're hypnotized by raw heaviness, you're far more justified in loving this than loving the debut, but I'm still concerned about Devourment's lack of fixation on the artform that many death bands have proven death metal can be.  In short, the SOUND of the album is perfect.  Everything else is hit or miss.  If the re-recording is superior like RYM says, let's find out.  But I was NOT impressed with their debut, which some say is their best, so maybe not.

7/10.

Oh... my... god.  This was freaking insane.  Thanks to some clearer production and a more progressive outlook on many of the song structures, this album boasts some insane creativity in comparison to Devourment's first two albums.  This official re-recording of the previously self-released sophomore is all about improvement.  On this re-recording, Devourment is no longer being simple slammers.  They actually manage to be much more surprising.  This takes the headbanging quality of the flawed original and mingles it with constant surprises that never let up on the super-extremities, not even during the lighter moments.  Even Mike Majewski is trying out a variety of vocal tricks on songs like Serial Cocksucker, which was already one of the more creative songs on the previous album.   Hell, even of Tomb of Scabs, which was pretty freaking weak on the original work, this completely crazy slam track has both extra-gutteral and somewhat intelligible vocals among the pig squeals.  And thanks to this consistently unpredictable behavior of each song, the sameyness factor is a minimal problem, acting more like Pg. 99's Document 8 in the sense that it handles a genre and its child, (screamo and emoviolence, in comparison to brutal and slam), and showcases a wide variety of tricks without getting too samey, something that original felt monotone about the original album.  However, since the creative diversity was more on a song by song basis, I'd say that the edge still goes to Document 8.  But even though our guitar structures and singing here are at a creative peak, the star of the show is still our drummer Eric Park, who's combination of speed and heaviness rival that of many of the greatest drummers on Earth, especially when he's got that combination of snares and cymbals going at the same time.  In fact, the craziness here is on par with a good avant-garde jazz album.  In fact, I don't know if there's a song on this album I couldn't rate five stars.  In fact, it even made a point of bringing unpredictability and surprises to what was the weakest song on the original: Babykiller, largely by starting it off as lighter and more intelligible, as a brutal death song before a slam death song.

Well, congratulations, Devourment!  After 2421 metal albums, you have created the heaviest metal album I have ever heard.  There are even some ways in which Devourment match Suffocation, and I do NOT say that easily about death metal bands at all.  Maybe it doesn't have the genre-diversifying creativity of albums like Unquestionable Presence by Athiest, but I don't think this album really needs it.  This is more than just a showcase of heaviness; it's proof that even these young and dumb hopefuls who obsess over the grossest humor possible can show creative intelligence, and even though it's samey it NEVER get old. They flawlessly overcame their lack of diversity to reach a new metallic height that might not be replicated ever again, beating Kreator, Cryptopsy and Cannibal Corpse at the heaviness game. This is both clear and polished while being disgusting and dirty, and it molds creativity with sameyness perfectly.  This is some peak death metal here.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to listen to some female-fronted new age to heal my brain front this sonic assault.

10/10.

Suffocation basically took Cannibal Corpse's gimmick to a new level, except from what I hear, Cannibal Corpse was better.

5.5 / 10

To be fair, Suffocation's signature sound predates Cannibal Corpse's one pretty comfortably as Suffocation had already pretty much defined their sound on their 1990 "Reincremation" demo & further refined it for "Human Waste", both of which were released prior to Cannibal Corpse upping the ante on their brutality for 1991's  "Butchered At Birth" sophomore album.

Suffocation basically took Cannibal Corpse's gimmick to a new level, except from what I hear, Cannibal Corpse was better.

5.5 / 10

To be fair, Suffocation's signature sound predates Cannibal Corpse's one pretty comfortably as Suffocation had already pretty much defined their sound on their 1990 "Reincremation" demo & further refined it for "Human Waste", both of which were released prior to Cannibal Corpse upping the ante on their brutality for 1991's  "Butchered At Birth" sophomore album.

That was supposed to say "Devourment," not "Suffocation."  Fixing it.

Devourment - Unleash the Carnivore

I just gave a glowing review to the rerecording of Butcher the Weak.  One would think that after a significant improvement over the original version, Devourment would've learned their lesson.  Nope, the resort to almost exclusive heaviness again.  Now Devourment are just as extreme as ever.  There's no denying that they're a major contender for the heaviest band on Earth.  But does that mean they're the best writers?  They only pretty much understand one thing about metal music, and they only incorporate enough of the bare essentials not to sell anything "bad."  This album really proves that.  Each song is basically a rehash of elements from the first two Devourment albums with the heaviness of the third, but with less polished production.  As a result, we get another case of the bad wall of cymbals drowning out the rhythms, leaving a fairly rhythmic headbangers' album that doesn't do the band any real justice.  Honestly, the very idea of them immediately going back to their bad habits after one surprisingly well-written and tightly-knit album is pretty annoying.  It's obvious that Devourment cares more about the rep than anything.  In the end, this album is STRICTLY for Devourment fans, because the fans will likely be satisfied that their heaviness factor hasn't waned.

6.5 / 10

Devourment - Conceived in Sewage

Not posting the cover because it reminds me of a bad dream I had.

Devourment started relying on reputation once they were signed to a major label, and as a result they didn't try anymore, like Sonic Team.  So their immediate album after Butcher the Weak, Unleash the Carnivore, had none of the same wacky-ass behavior.  It was the standard slam they invented, but with better production values, and if you ask me that's not enough.  So Devourment became strictly "for the fans," as if that kind of death metal was gonna be a number one on the Billboard to begin with.  The same is unfortunately said for their next album, Conceived in Sewage.  The selling point is slam, and that's all they were gonna be.  Unfortunately, it also ended up as their least popular album, because it was just more of the same.  We have some incredible heaviness here, but something about it seems lighter than the last two albums.  Maybe it's because the production is noticeably less polished?  This makes many of the guitar rhythms drown themselves out in heaviness, despite the fact that it's still less heavy than before.  This problem is most apparent in "Today We Die, Tomorrow We Kill," which is so simple-minded that it might as well have been left off this repetitive filler album.  There are some decent rhythms here, though.  I honestly liked some of the rhythms more than the ones on Unleash the Carnivore.  The big problem here is that Devourment thought they could get away with delivering nothing new.  They can't.  So if you're already a fan who appreciates slam, you'll get a little enjoyment out of this.  But it's not an album I would recommend, even for Devourment fans.  At least Eric Park put up a pretty good fight for his last Devourment album.

63 / 100

Devourment - Obscene Majesty

Here we are, the album that many consider the heaviest album of all time, and it just might be.  A lot of Devourment fans, including myself, got what we wanted: a new direction.  Devourment were focusing on atmosphere more than anything on this album, and created a massive blast of heaviness that remains somewhat pleasing to the ears of the extreme fan throughout the entire run.  On the first track, even though it was a bit long, I knew the album was gonna end up better.  Unfortunately, in its greatest strength is also its greatest flaw.  The heaviness is so much that for the 47-minute runtime that's been absurd for a lot of death albums, this armosphere album drowns out many of its melodies in place of vibes, so Devourment haven't really learned much.  I'm still missing a good deal of that unpredictable craziness from the Butcher the Weak rerecording.  I'll say that this album is definitely an improvement over the last two, but I was practically BEGGING the positive reviews to be lived up to.

71 / 100

"Obscene Majesty" is comfortably my Devourment release of choice.

Internal Bleeding - "Voracious Contempt" (1995)

The early-to-mid 1990’s were a marvelous time to be alive for budding young extreme metal enthusiasts like myself. I was lucky enough to discover brutal death metal right from its inception at the commencement of the decade & it very quickly became an obsession of mine to find every band on earth that even hinted at a more muscular brand of death metal. The New York scene became a haven for these acts in the wake of the Suffocation boom & my letter box would very quickly start to become a place of refuge for young bands from that part of the world. Amongst those would be Levittown locals Internal Bleeding, originally through their 1994 “Perpetual Degradation” demo & then via this 1995 debut album “Voracious Contempt” shortly afterwards. Both releases gave me a great deal of enjoyment at the time & I can even hear a bit of that influence in the 1995 demo tapes from my old band Neuropath when listening with fresh ears. It’s been a long time since I revisited Internal Bleeding's earlier efforts though so I thought I’d pull out “Voracious Contempt” for a trip down Memory Lane, particularly given my recent dalliances with slam death metal which is a genre that Internal Bleeding played a large part in creating.

Internal Bleeding’s sound (& slam death metal’s too if you want to get technical about it) is built on a fairly limited palate of techniques which are repeatedly utilized throughout the tracklisting. Many of these tools are borrowed from Suffocation’s early works only slam death artists give them a much more thorough working over in order to milk them for everything they’re worth. If we start with the production job you’ll find Internal Bleeding drawing upon a super-distorted & ultra-compressed guitar tone to create an abrasive yet predominantly rhythmic effect. The compositions are made up of a mixture of slow-to-mid tempo slam riffs built on the breakdown techniques popularized on Suffocation’s 1991 debut album “Effigy of the Forgotten”, combining them with faster blast-beat-driven parts that borrow heavily from Suffocation’s 1991 “Human Waste” EP. Drummer Bill Tolley seems to only know the one simple blast beat technique so he tends to repeat it on every track. It’s worth mentioning that Tolley had passed the vocal duties over to newcomer Frank Rini since the “Perpetual Degradation” demo &, while Rini’s death grunts are certainly ultra-deep, they aren’t especially aggressive in death metal terms. I prefer Tolley’s style from the demo tape to be honest but Rini does a reasonable job here nonetheless.

The ten-song tracklisting is very consistent with a few of the stronger inclusions being reworked versions of songs that originally appeared on “Perpetual Degradation”. There are also a few that featured on earlier demos that I don’t recall owning as well. The album starts off in very solid fashion for the first couple of tracks before taking a slight dip for the remainder of the A side & rising again for a unanimously high quality B side. Despite the fact that there are no weak tracks included, I’m not sure I’d class any of these songs as death metal classics. My personal favourite “Inhuman Suffering”, opener “Languish In Despair” & “Prophet of the Blasphemes” are probably the pick of the bunch but it can be hard to pick out individual tracks given the similarities in tone & approach. X

There’s a case to argue that Internal Bleeding really created the slam death metal sound with “Perpetual Degradation” & “Voracious Contempt”. If not, then they certainly brought it to the attention of the death metal public. “Voracious Contempt” still possesses many of the calling cards of the early brutal death metal sound as well though which gives it some added appeal for me personally, particularly given that it’s not tainted by modern-day slam traits such as the pinging snare drum or the indecipherable drainpipe vocal gurgle. Fans of bands like Devourment, Repudilation & Soils of Fate should definitely make themselves familiar with it as I can’t see it disappointing too many slam/brutal death metal nuts.

4/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Slam Death Metal Releases of All Time list with Devourment's "Molesting The Decapitated" being the unlucky release to drop out:

01. Pathology – “The Time Of Great Purification” (2012)

02. Abominable Putridity – “The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin” (2012)

03. Devourment – “Obscene Majesty” (2019)

04. Katalepsy - "Autopsychosis" (2013)

05. Internal Bleeding - "Voracious Contempt" (1995)

06. Devour The Unborn – “Consuming The Morgue Remains” (2012)

07. Disfiguring The Goddess – “Sleeper” (2012)

08. Pighead – “Rotten Body Reanimation” (2012)

09. Coprophiliac – “Whining Bitch Treatment” (2012)

10. Devourment - "Butcher The Weak" (2006)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/145

XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX - "Gore" E.P. (2016)

I’d suggest that most Metal Academics are probably fairly aware of the fact that subgenres like slam death metal & deathcore are unfairly treated on most other metal websites. In fact, this was one of the major reasons for Ben & I even starting to discuss the possibility of a Metal Academy site in the first place. In saying that though, there are some pockets of the subgenres I mentioned that are more maligned than others & it's hardly surprising that South Africa’s XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX (short for Acidic Vaginal Liquid Explosion Generated by Mass Amounts of Filthy Fecal Fisting and Sadistic Septic Syphilic Sodomy Inside the Infected Maggot Infested Womb of a Molested Nun Dying Under the Roof of a Burning Church While a Priest Watches and Ejaculates In Immense Perverse Pleasure Over His First Fresh Fetus) fit into that bracket now, is it? I mean, you could be forgiven for making the immediate assumption that they’re a novelty band because the reality is that they clearly are, not only because of their ridiculous moniker & completely absurd logo but also because they also seem to want to showcase & highlight all of the commonly criticized traits from both genres. While that may be true though, sometimes I just find that I like what I like & how cool I may appear is not something that I've ever been too concerned with.

2016’s “Gore” E.P. was the Durban duo’s first release with Kris Xenopoulos (Vulvodynia) handling all of the instrumentation & Duncan Bentley (Vulvodynia/Wormhole) taking on all vocal duties. The sound you can expect to hear sits somewhere between slam death metal & deathcore with a slightly stronger emphasis on the former even though the breakdowns often tend to angle a touch more towards the other direction. Kris’ performance behind the drum kit is worth mentioning as he possesses some impressive chops for someone that’s presumably more of a guitarist based on his prior experience. The blast-beat sections are amongst the strongest components to the band’s sound & are accentuated by a bright & crystal-clear mix that brings the kick drums right to the front. It’s a really well produced little E.P. actually which admittedly isn’t all that uncommon for groups that tackle these sort of niche subgenres these days.

Duncan’s vocal performance offers a bit of variety. He’ll no doubt annoy those who can’t stand a pig-squealed “BBBBRRREEEEEE” or two because he seems to be consciously trying to highlight the absurdity of that technique here. He also displays some level of hardcore pedigree at times through some more aggressive beatdown-style deathcore rants. Another element that might piss of the purists out there is XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX’s tendency to indulge in a bit of humour, both lyrically & instrumentally. You won’t understand the lyrics but I’m led to believe that they’re particularly silly (see the weakest inclusion "Dicks Out For Harambe" for example) while the random u-turns into disparate musical genres like djent, groove metal or even jazz require an open-mind but are well-executed nonetheless.

Look, I’m not gonna suggest that any non-believers try “Gore” on for their very first slam or deathcore experience but it’s not half bad when taken on musical value alone. I love me some brutal death metal & there’s certainly some brutality about this stuff. I’m also a bit of a sucker for decent production jobs in my extreme metal & it ticks that box too. I can’t see myself giving this twelve-minute release too many revisits in the future but fans of artists like Acrania, Ingested or the previously-mentioned Vulvodynia will no doubt find some appeal in this unfairly maligned piece of over-the-top extreme music.

3.5/5