Sanatorium: Internal Womb Cannibalism Review

Sanatorium, on this album anyway, tread a line somewhere between brutal death metal and slam death. I would actually suggest that this album is a slam death album, although in reading reviews of their other material, I am not sure they are always a slam death band. Even if they are indeed a slam death band, they are usually playing some more interesting riffs than most other such bands.

The music is heavily laden with breakdowns. They kick in at a rate of a couple per song. During these breakdowns, the guitars actually are playing some decent death metal riffs. The drums pound along with the riffs with the occasional fill. The drummer drives the music moreso than any other members. The bass is audible but is typically not doing anything other than what the guitars are doing. Musically, the band is obviously talented, even though they are playing a more simplistic form of death metal on this particular album. It is this talent that helps the band to stand out from the more stereotypical slam death bands like Devourment and Internal Bleeding.

There are two different types of vocals. There are some more standard death growls, sounding like Chris Barnes during his early Cannibal Corpse days. There are also gurgling guttural vocals in almost every song which typically show up during the breakdowns. The vocals are impressive at first but wear thin rather quickly.

The most interesting song is "The False Prophet" which does not start out much different than any other song, but the middle section consists of a somewhat melodic groove over a sample of wailing and even features a guitar solo, the only one on the album. It then quickly reverts back to a slam riff.

The song titles and lyrical subject matter consist mostly of typical slam death fare, such as gore, death, some anti-christian themes, and misogyny. This is all par for the course for this type of a band and is not to be taken seriously. They are trying to offend people and this is no secret.

As a whole, the album is very heavy and brutal. The vocals, the drums, and the riffs add up to one hell of a brutal listening experience. However, it just gets tiring after awhile. They are doing some more interesting things with the slam death genre, it really shows that the band does not exist solely within the slam genre, but even their innovations wear thin.