Dying Fetus: Wrong One to Fuck With (2017)

Dying Fetus was one of the first brutal death metal bands I got into.  Much like Suffocation, the band has always existed somewhere on a continuum between grooving slam death and technical brutal death metal, but they marry the two seemingly disparate styles quite well.  I always make it a point to check out new releases by the band, but they have been away for about five years prior to the release of this album.  And there was quite a bit of hype for this one.

A few things were immediately apparent which did not even require listening to the album to be able to tell that this was going to be a very strong release.  First off, the band brought back their early band logo that has not been used since their demo days.  Secondly, the gory album cover, promising violence.  And third, the name of the album itself.  Dying Fetus has never really been subtle, but those three factors raised my hopes that this was going to be one hell of an album.  Dying Fetus did not disappoint.

From the beginning of this album, a highly technical lead riff leading into a pummeling opening track, it was clear that the time off has been just what Dying Fetus needed in order to rejuvenate their sound.  The rest of the album follows suit with equal parts technicality and brutality.  The production is crisp and clear, allowing each of the instruments to be heard well, which helps emphasize just how impressive John Gallagher's guitar leads are, the punishing throbbing of John Beasley's bass, and how impressively Trey Williams plays the skins.  Dual vocalists Gallagher and Beasley continue to complement each other well, barking their vocals in their own distinct extreme styles.

This is a damn impressive album.  I have been a big fan of Dying Fetus for about ten years now, but this is easily their best album they have released in that time.  Everything about this grabs attention and refuses to let go.  This is an absolutely punishing, uncompromising slab of metal that forces itself to be heard and does not let go.

Initial Impressions: Dying Fetus: Reign Supreme

Dying Fetus was once one of the pioneering bands in the slam death genre.  In the years since then they have moved into more of brutal death metal band with the occasional slams and of course some more technical riffing style thrown in for good measure.  None of this has detracted from the band's music.  I have liked every single Dying Fetus album I have checked out to this point.

Dying Fetus singer John Gallagher has gotten a lot of flack in the past for his statement about liking some rap music better than some heavy metal.  It is even clear from his vocal style on some tracks that rap has influenced him quite a bit.  Some of his vocals would sound like rap if they were not delivered in Gallagher's distinctive deep guttural croak.  The pacing and rhythm of his vocals, particularly when he is doing his deepest frog croak are the most obvious times.  This continues on this release.

Fans of Dying Fetus will know what to expect here.  A whirlwind of squealing guitars, crushing riffs and breakdowns, and quick but brutally heavy songs.  Dying Fetus does not re-invent the wheel here, they are just doing the same thing they have always done, crush skulls.  Even after 20 years, they still sound pretty damn good at it.

My Top 5 Slam Albums

These are my favorite slam albums of the moment. Some of these could easily change at a moment's notice:

WORMED: PLANISPHAERIUM
I have alluded to it before, this is an utterly unique album by an utterly unique band. Wormed does not sound like any other band. They do science fiction-based slam death metal with an unusual almost dissonant atmosphere to their riffs. As I mentioned on the Initial Impressions post of last year's teaser, the band sounds like Demilich's singer fronting a combination of Devourment and Voivod. It is a truly unique sound. Wormed is one of a kind.

DEFEATED SANITY: CHAPTERS OF REPUGNANCE
German slam/brutal death metal band Defeated Sanity is also highly unusual. The band uses a variety of influences worked into their brutal style of metal, including some almost jazz-like experimentation and sections at times. The vocals are extremely deep and guttural and the riffs fly by at lightning-quick speeds. Defeated Sanity is another example of a highly unusual slam band.

SARCOLYTIC: THEE ARCANE PROGENY
Sarcolytic is one of a number of great bands from the Texas Death Metal scene. Most bands from the scene exist on the border between slam and brutal death and Sarcolytic is no exception. While this album, their first full-length, has lightened the slam influences from the earlier material, they are still definitely present and absolutely crushing when they are there. The almost Lovecraftian sound of the band makes this an album to check out.

DEVOURMENT: 1.3.8
Now we get to a more typical slam album. Technically this is a compilation album including the band's fantastic Molesting the Decapitated debut and some demos and of course the infamous "Babykiller" track which is the band's most well-known song. This is exactly what slam should be: short and brutally intense with extremely heavy breakdowns, which are of course the slams. The vocals of Wayne Knupp were also extremely influential on the genre.

DYING FETUS: KILLING ON ADRENALINE
Dying Fetus was one of the first bands that got me into slam and of course the band was hugely influential on the formation of the subgenre as well. This is, in my opinion, their finest album. It was not the first album I checked out by the band, but it is the one that convinced me of their influence. The band has been softening their sound somewhat lately, but this is brutal as it got for them. Just an incredible, furious album.

5 Important Bands, 1 Genre: Slam Death

I have not done one of these posts for quite some time, so here we go. For those who don't remember one of these before, I am looking at five bands that were important in forming my opinion of the genre. This one is a little bit more specialized.

SUFFOCATION
Suffocation is not a slam death metal band. Let us just get that out of the way first. However, they were a major influence on the formation of the subgenre. Slam death metal bands took some of the breakdown-laden ridiculously heavy sound that was Suffocation's bread and butter and took it to the extreme. They simplified things a bit and focused on the breakdown. Suffocation was vitally important in the formation of slam death and that is why they are listed in this post.

INTERNAL BLEEDING
Internal Bleeding is often cited as the first real slam death metal band. My first album by this band was this compilation pulling together most of the band's demos that I received in a Century Media grab bag. My first impression was not terribly positive, but I did grow to really enjoy it. This is still one of the first CDs I grab when I want to listen to some slam. The rawness and energy of it grabs your attention.

SANATORIUM
Another album that I received in a lot of CDs, this one a lot of death metal CDs off of ebay. Sanatorium was the first band I listened to with the kind of frog-like gurgling vocals that have become a staple of the genre. This, in addition to the violent lyrics and deep throbbing slams, caught my attention from the beginning. It was kind of a joke album that I would put on to blow the minds of passengers in my car, I just grew to love it.

DYING FETUS
Dying Fetus is a group that I loved from the first time that I heard them. I realize that my first album from the group, their 2007 release, is not one of their strongest upon looking into their back catalog, but it definitely grabbed my attention. It was extremely powerful and chaotic, but with a political side to the lyrics. Dying Fetus catches a lot of crap for the singer's admitted love for rap music, but the band continues to put out good music.

ATROCIOUS ABNORMALITY
Atrocious Abnormality is the first band that I successfully added to the Encyclopedia Metallum database. They exist on the border between slam death and brutal death metal with some surprisingly technical riffs in places. I also picked up their album after I submitted them to the database and was very impressed from the first time I heard them.

After those five bands, I started paying attention to Sgt. D's posts on slam on Metal Inquisition which lead me to finding more and more slam death.

Slam Update: Cephalotripsy, Dying Fetus, Entorturement, Pyrexia

Last week, I did something that I hardly ever do. I downloaded some albums. I did this because they are very hard to find, out of print albums, that are often expensive in physical form. I also did it because I wanted to hear them. Last year, an article on slam metal appeared in Decibel. In it, Sgt. D of Metal Inquisition posted a list of five essential slam albums. I only owned one of them. So, last week, in the midst of my latest slam kick, I downloaded the other four albums. I feel bad about it, because I don't care for downloading, but I did it anyway. I wanted to hear these albums.

CEPHALOTRIPSY: UTEROVAGINAL INSERTION OF EXTIRPATED ANOMALIESThat's quite the mouthful of a name, huh? This is a newer slam band and they perfectly embody everything that slam has become. The music sounds filthy and downright disgusting. The vocals are delivered in a half frog croak, half cricket chirp style. The music has a lot of bottom end and the slams come fast and furious. The album art is typically grotesque. The album is a bit overly long with fourteen tracks and clocking in at slightly less than an hour, but that's okay. Cephalotripsy is essentially the quintessential example of a modern slam death band, for better or for worse, depending on your feelings for the genre.

DYING FETUS: KILLING ON ADRENALINEI have a couple of albums by Dying Fetus already, so I knew what to expect. This album though, blows the other two albums I own out of the water. The music sounds a little more like technical brutal death with some grindcore elements present as well. It's fast and very brutal. There are frequent guitar sweeps and leads accentuating the music. The slams are presnet here, but this album came before the genre was really fully developed. This is a better album than the prior two Dying Fetus albums I have heard, which are their most recent. It's clear that this band was better earlier and helped lay some foundation for the genre as it currently stands.

ENTORTUREMENT: DESCEND INTO DEPRIVATIONOkay, this one's a little weird. At least the last track is weird. Up until then, we have a bunch of songs that sound a little like Devourment and Internal Bleeding, the first really true slam bands. The last track actually features rapping. I'm not kidding, rapping in a death metal vocal style. It's no secret that slam death takes some influence from rap, but this is just crazy. A lot of the music also sounds as if it takes influence from rap beats. Just a crazy album all the way through.

PYREXIA: SERMON OF MOCKERYPyrexia arrived about the same time as Suffocation and was one of the major influences on the genre. Their sound is similar to Suffocation except with some more breakdowns which later became the slams in more modern slam death. They are not as technically gifted as Suffocation, but otherwise sound a lot like the band. Of these four albums, I think this is my favorite.

Quick and Dirty Initial Impressions Roundup

I am going to run through a few of my recent pickups here. There have been a lot of big bands with new albums in the last few months.

DESTROYER 666: DEFIANCE

D666 is an amazing band. They keep putting out great recordings despite the fact that none of their such recordings sound much alike. On this one, the band takes its thrash influences and its black influences and mashes them together and adds some more melody. That's right, this album is significantly more melodic than their previous albums. This is quite possibly a finalist for Album of the Year. It's that good.

DYING FETUS: DESCEND INTO DEPRAVITY

Dying Fetus manages to further refine their sound. Dying Fetus was one of the early bands to dabble in slam death, but at this point they are far more technical and brutal, becoming more of a Suffocation-type band minus the dirge-like grooves. Dying Fetus seems to get better every album. I did not know what to expect when I picked this up, but I am glad I did.

THANATOS: JUSTIFIED GENOCIDE

Thanatos is one of the more underrated bands in the death/thrash scene, possibly because the band comes from Netherlands, which is not exactly a hotbed of metal activity. Thanatos is one of the more brutal, powerful bands to come out of the early death/thrash scene and the first Dutch extreme metal band. This album is incredible, powerful, and melodic. There are two bonus tracks, both of which made up the 7" vinyl EP.

VADER: NECROPOLIS

Vader is one of the most consistent extreme metal bands, as well as being the first major metal band from Poland. Not much to say here, if you enjoy Vader, you will enjoy this, if not, don't bother. Vader is one of my favorite bands, so I love the album.

Slam Death Metal

I'm not sure what there is that's appealing about this genre. It's dumbed-down, simplistic death metal for white trash idiots. It's gory, misogynistic, extremely brutal, and pummelling. So, why the hell can't I stop listening to it?

I have no idea, but I have been listening quite a bit over the last few weeks. The folks over at Metal Inquisition love this stuff, so I took some of their myriad posts to heart in determining what to order from Comatose Music. Ultimately, I ended up with four new slam death albums in addition to the four (debateable, possibly only two) that I had already. Let's take a little look at some of these bands.

INTERNAL BLEEDING

Quite possibly the originator of the genre. Internal Bleeding came out of the early 1990's New York death metal scene and were very influenced by groups like Suffocation and Pyrexia. They took those bands' typical breakdown-heavy, groove-laden brand of death metal and pushed it further, adding more breakdowns and becoming more brutal. Internal Bleeding is a little more listenable than some of the others to new listeners just because they are still closer to brutal death than the typical slam of today.

DYING FETUS

This is one of those that is debateable. Dying Fetus may have started out as a slam band before there really was such a thing. Now they have moved more in the direction of technical brutal death metal and grindcore. I have their latest album which really is not a slam death album at all.

DEVOURMENT

Internal Bleeding may have started it, but Devourment definitely perfected it. The extreme guttural vocals, frequent breakdowns, pounding drums, extreme lyrics; all were made more pronounced by Devourment. Butcher the Weak is probably the most essential album of the entire genre.

ABOMINABLE PUTRIDITY

Slam death metal has spread all over the world and is particularly popular in some bizarre places. A.P. is from Russia, not exactly a bastion of metal. Its spread is possibly due to it being easily played and still extreme. A.P. is definitely not my favorite from the genre, they play slower than the others and the vocal style has devolved to a constant growl that does not appear to be making any differentiation in words. At least the album is short.

KATALEPSY

Another Russian group, but Katalepsy is a lot more enjoyable than their countrymen in Abominable Putridity. Katalepsy is faster and more technical than A.P. The vocal style is also more distinctive. Katalepsy does use the gurgling style of vocals occasionally that has become well-known to the genre. On my album, they do a cover of the Megadeth standard "Symphony of Destruction" which does not sound AT ALL like the original. Somehow they make it work though.

VOMIT REMNANTS

Vomit Remnants is from Japan and is one of the up-and-coming bands of the genre. They have yet to even issue a full-length album at this time. This is another example of the genre spreading into odd places. Vomit Remnants add some occasional industrial influences in which is kind of bizarre.

So there you go, a small primer on some bands in the slam death metal scene. It is truly an odd genre of music with absolutely no mainstream potential. Maybe that's why it's appealing.