Review by Daniel for Pungent Stench - Been Caught Buttering (1991)

My awareness of Austrian death metallers Pungent Stench first kicked off around 1990 through their first two proper releases in the 1989 split album with fellow Austrians Disharmonic Orchestra & their 1990 debut full-length "For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh". I quite liked the split album but it was really the latter release that saw me being convinced as to Pungent Stench's credentials as anything more than a novelty act & my dubbed cassette copy received quite a few spins that year. My positive impressions of that album would lead me to purchase a cassette copy of the band's 1991 sophomore album "Been Caught Buttering" (I'm guessing a take on Jane's Addiction's hit song "Been Caught Stealing") shortly after release & I found it to be even more enjoyable than "For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh". It was also so shocking in its graphic lyrics & imagery that it made for a fantastic talking point with my non-metal-loving school mates who thought it was simply hilarious so there was definitely some added value for a young chap like I was at the time. My parents? Well, they found it a little less amusing but let's not talk about the fun police now, ok?

"Been Caught Buttering" offers some of the more notorious cover art you're ever likely to encounter & certainly makes the desired impression. The production is fairly muddy but that kinda suits a band like Pungent Stench now, doesn't it? I mean, you're not exactly looking for a super-clinical display of technical prowess when you listen to bands that represent the more fun side of misogynistic serial killing, are you? And that's very much what Pungent Stench were about. They were there purely to shock the listener into laughing & they did a very good job at it too. Song-titles like "Happy Re-Birthday", "Shrunken & Mummified Bitch" & "Splatterday Night Fever" are self-explanatory in their blatant disregard for your moral compass but what about their quality from a musical perspective? Well, I would argue that "Been Caught Buttering" showcases Pungent Stench at the peak of their powers in that regard as I still find it to be a captivating listen all these years later, despite the novelty having worn off decades ago.

The sound Pungent Stench were pushing back in 1991 contained a few different components, the first of which is a grimy old-school death metal sound that forms the basis for the record & reminds me very much of California's Autopsy. The band throw in a few moments of humor to break up their debauchery with the dead though & to remind you that this is all in name of good fun. There's a clear deathgrind influence on tracks like "Happy Re-Birthday" & "Sputter Supper" which are a little more savage in their assault on the senses & remind me of bands like Impetigo & Macabre. I tend to think of these moments as being a touch less appealing than the rest of the album as they seem a little more disposable than the Stench's more significant offerings. Some of these can be found in the two lengthier doom/death numbers "Games of Humiliation" & "And Only Hunger Remains" which showcase a clear Black Sabbath influence & sit amongst the album's highlights along with death metal ditties like "Shrunken & Mummified Bitch" & "Splatterday Night Fever". The three-piece lineup works very well for this sort of material with the treble-heavy guitar solos of front man Martin Schirenc (Hollenthon/Kreuzweg Ost) lacerating your ear drums over a solid rhythm section that offers as much groove as it does brutality.

It's easy to treat "Been Caught Buttering" primarily as a novelty release but there's a lot more to it than that in my opinion. Pungent Stench clearly knew the art of catchy song-writing & I think you'll find that a bit of dedicated attention will see your mean-&-nasty extreme metal walls coming down once the hooks dig their teeth in. The final track "Splatterday Night Fever" is a prime example of this as the guitar melody has no place on a death metal song yet it somehow manages to seep into your pores & has since become my favourite track on the record. It's moments like that that make "Been Caught Buttering" my preferred Pungent Stench release these days as it seems to overachieve no matter how hard I fight against its silly immaturities. It certainly helps that the highlights tracks are the most significant inclusions on the tracklisting too as it's those that I find myself recalling when I think of the album which encourages my urge to return for another round of raunchy graveyard shenanigans.