Reviews list for 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?