Album review: Rottenbroth - Necroceremony Vomitorum (2021)

 

Rottenbroth - Necroceremony Vomitorum

Brazil

Awakening Records

What a way to start a death metal album! Just listen to the opening riff of "Necroceremony Vomitorum" and tell me it does not blow you away! It's the fuel you need to get into their sound and get a sense of Rottenbroth's potential.

No one can deny the musical quality that a country like Brazil possesses. We all know the reputation of this country and it's impressive how this quality has been maintained over time and how Brazil continues to produce a great number of incredible bands. Here is proof of that.

When you see cover art like this, the first thing you imagine is that it's a Slamming Brutal Death Metal band or a similarly cataloged subgenre, though you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that this is not the case. In fact, I'd say it's a rare breed of death/doom, influenced by bands like Asphyx and Autopsy. At first the vocals may sound a bit strange, but after a while you will get used to it and realize that the singer is a real beast with a very well mastered technique. He can shape his voice the way you want him to. But what I like most is how he screams those high notes. They are insane! As always, not everyone will like it (I even found people making fun of it), but they can go to hell! Or wherever they want. He has a way of singing that seems to spew slime and vomit in every word. It is truly disgusting and brutally nauseating with all the creeping undertones that characterize his style.

As for the rest of the band, I like the sound they have achieved. It's decent for what they are proposing. All the instruments can be heard at the same level. It's very well balanced and the fetid smell of death metal can be detected in every aspect They have a distinct old school style. I did not find one boring track on this album. Even my favorite "Carcass Epidemic" had me raving. I think it's the fucking hymn on this album. Excellent for letting the listener's mind wander.

If you want to hear some truly putrid, yet heavy as fuck mid-tempo death metal, this is the band for you! I assure you it will be a great experience! (Catacombs Walker)

Album review: Ossuary - Addicted To Human Flesh (2021)

Ossuary - Addicted To Human Flesh

Colombia

Awakening Records

“Addicted To Human Flesh” is the third machete strike to the forehead of posers from these Colombian maniacs. The new album is an immense work full of odes to violence, paired with their sick passion for old-school death metal.

This is a call for all those Addicted To Human Flesh...

Colombia is a country with an excellent reputation when it comes to producing good metal; therefore I can only recommend checking out as much as you can from that country. This work, in my humble opinion, will be one of the best albums of 2021. The overall sound is a real meat grinder. It is required to crank the volume up as loud as possible and allow your brains to be crushed and thrown in a cauldron that contains the remains of all those who had listened to the deranged sounds as they became victims of the massacre. It holds you on a hook – tearing your flesh – from beginning to end. I wish I could see them live because the great sound of the bass and drums work so well together and will repeatedly hit my chest until my ribs and organs are exposed.

The purulent and visceral vocals perfectly capture the band's dark thoughts with relevant themes pertaining to death, horror and perversion. The cover is a true reflection of that. The guitars sound utterly disgusting, and even though there aren’t many solos, the few that appear are executed with great skill. I would also like to add that the bombardment of riffs are endless, as they direct the assault in a way that you cannot possibly find tedious. Not a single second of rest is permitted to the listener with the savage and incessant vomit.

Bands such as Ossuary only fuel my desire to attend a show once and for all and violently break my skull in a mosh. I personally think that labels like Awakening Records are releasing some truly great material; therefore one has to be attentive to the signings of that label. In this case, they did not make a mistake at all. I fully recommend these sick practitioners of the grotesque! DEATH METAL! (Catacombs Walker)

Compilation review: Dugu - Skeleton Nausea Abyss (2019)

Dugu - Skeleton Nausea Abyss

China

Awakening Records

The insane Dugu from China have been stalking the world with their repulsive and noisy brand of death/thrash since 2018. With this release, the Awakening Records label made a compilation of all their material to date, which was released in 2019. Maybe in the beginning you might find the mixing of the songs a bit odd, but that’s exactly how it sounds when it’s a compilation, like amputated limbs of different people forming a new body.

Their ability to make loud music on the Asian continent is admirable. The album is an explosion of noise, but good noise. Everything is perfectly audible and frenzied. That raw and cavernous aspect gives the music a quality essence that – at least from my point of view – I understand what they are doing. The blazingly fast solos are so wild that it sounds like a string might break at any time, although what’s really surprising is the fact that they do not give that much prominence to the guitars. The vocals sound like a hungry growling beast. The band shapes chaos in their own way and not the other way around. The bass and drums have a very good synergy, both sounding very forceful and direct like a fist to the skull. Throughout this compilation the band carries out several covers (showing their influences) although one of them is very notable Poison (Germany). Immediately I could perceive that rancid essence that emanates mostly from the guitar. The music conjures images of the gang feasting on leftover corpses from abominations of decades past, like mouldy fungi that make meat fall off bones.

The passion for the old school is very evident on “Skeleton Nausea Abyss” and I think they are on the right track. Let's hope we are alive to witness the release of their debut album. If not, then they have already left their mark with this production. For fans of: Morbid Saint, Possessed, Poison. (Catacombs Walker)