Review: Sewercide – Immortalized In Suffering.
Death metal, done dirt cheap.
There’s a fucking good reason you’ve seen the name Sewercide pop up a handful of times on this very blog in the last year or so, and in case you’re one of the willfully ignorant, I’m going to chastise you through the only means available to me… writing about them again! I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get you obstinate scumlords to listen to this excellent Australian band’s debut full-length.
The title of album opener “For Those About To Rot” might seem to imply a comical introduction to the release, but rest assured, this is no cheese-festival. That is unless you call the blend of aggressive riffage and pulverising drumming “cheese”, and for some reason classify the venomous vocals as rennet. I don’t know why you would do that, but if you insist…whatever, actual cheese is fucking awesome anyway. One of the first things I noticed about this release is that bassist/vocalist Tobi’s vocals have been further honed and now rival the music as the most outright destructive element of the band’s sound. While they may not be as blatantly maniacal as those heard on say Reptilian‘s Perennial Void Traverse, they are certainly treading down that same path in following legends Martin van Drunen and Chris Reifert, especially in terms of range and delivery.
The early 90’s DM style is a prevailing theme throughout the record. For example, second track “A Dying Dream” has a short Schuldiner-esque harmony that will certainly please even the most devout Death-worshippers. These sort of skillfully integrated homages are consistently cropping-up but don’t ever feel shoe-horned into place. Moreover, much like a mongrel blue heeler, Sewercide have taken what was spewed out before them, waited until a nice crust formed, lapped it up and vomited the resultant filth-stew back into the faces of a whole new generation of the depraved. Pre-release single “Snares Of Carnality” is more infectious than any biological agent your government’s military industrial complex has ever spawned, and the sadistic “Acrimoniously Disharmonized” has greater bloodlust than a psychopathic butcher bereft of meat to cleave. There is virtually no relent to be had here as the band shred, gallop, squeal, clunk, chunk and burn their way through 9 tracks of malignant death fucken’ metal. Almost all of the songs are between 3:40 and 5:00 in length, but don’t lose any ferocity whatsoever. The same can be said of the album in a holistic sense, as I found the tracks in the guts (in particular “Pierced With Sentient Trepidity” and “Megalithic Tomb” – TovH exclusive stream below) to be some of the highest quality morsels on offer.
Throughout the album, fans of their previous work will notice the band have lost a little of the thrash found on their EP. However, this is made up for six-hundred and sixty-six fold by their increase in deathyness (yes, that’s a measurable parameter). The riffing has gained a substantial amount of weight. Not through fat though, rather pure lean muscle mass. The wretch remains lithe but is now even more dangerous. A great deal of the acclaim for this excellent balance of agility and heft can be attributed to the guitarists. To their repertoire, these Aussie battlers have added a variety of deranged-sounding artificial harmonics and the sort of angular runs that recall the synapse-tweaking spasmodic bursts of early Gorguts (see “Inifinifixion”). Album closer “Eternal (In Spirit)” is a primal outburst of hostility that manages to show the band’s astute skill in song-crafting while still remaining innately visceral. With a run-time of just over 36 minutes, the album does not outstay its welcome, and even if it did, you’d be too shell-shocked to tell it so. As much as Immortalized In Suffering is a barrage of completely unstoppable force, Sewercide mix it up creatively. This is achieved by adding horror with some interesting touches, such as the creepily off-putting outro to second track “A Dying Dream” with its sordid clean tone and deliberately out of pitch notes, and the aptly titled intermission “Interlude In Agony”, which is as sinister as Tom Cruises’ vampiric smile (and no, I mean his actual smile, not that time he played some fake-arse Dracula).
The music isn’t the only part of this album redolent of the golden-era of OSDM. The insane album cover was created by Turkka Rantanen, who has produced art for such revered acts as: Demigod, Adramelech, Archgoat and Demilich. Also, with a $10 price tag for the CD or $6 for digital, the release seems to have all the benefits of the 1990’s without giving you an achy-breaky-wallet. If you like death metal in any shape or form, I suggest ripping the scabs off a few tinnies (read: “Drink some beers”) and cranking the fuck out of this bloody vicious beast of a thing. Even through all the killer death metal we’ve had already this year, I’ve been listening to this one flat-out like a lizard drinking, it’s that damn good!
4/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell.
Pick up Immortalized In Suffering through Unspeakable Axe Records (interview) from June 13th.
Also become a ridgey-didge true-blue bloody legend by going out and supporting these fair dinkum cobbers on their inaugural US tour through June & July (Dates here). Although, I’d recommend keeping up to date with their itinerary through their often hilarious friendface page.
(Image via)
