Vomit Remants: Supreme Entity (1999)

Well, once again I mistakenly purchased a Vomit Remnants album that was subsumed in the compilation that I picked up years ago.  This is the band's first full-length release and finds the band fully-formed as a paint-by-the-numbers slam death.  That is not to say that this is bad, far from it, as the band is one that was instrumental in making me a fan of the genre.

This release by Vomit Remnants is absolutely sick and disgusting slam, punctuated by brutal riffs and guttural vocals.  The drum sound is terrible, sounding like pounding on a trash can, but that is just part of the charm.  There are a number of absolutely ridiculous samples preceding some of the songs, including what sounds like an advertisement for weed-growing tips.  I am not sure where these samples come from, but they are hilariously weird. 

Just like the last release I picked up from Vomit Remnants, this one features a number of live tracks added on at the end.  They are significantly better this time around, helped out by much better sound quality, but they still seem very unnecessary.

Vomit Remnants was an important band in getting me into slam death metal.  This album is a good example of why that is, checking all the major requirements of a slam album.  Hopefully next time I grab a release by Vomit Remnants, it will be one I have not heard before.

Vomit Remnants: Indefensible Vehemence (2001)

It's been awhile since I did a slam release, so here is Japan's Vomit Remnants.  This is a band I am fairly familiar with, although I did not quite realize just how familiar with this particular release I was.  I have a CD compilation from Vomit Remnants as part of one of my early sojourns into the genre.  That compilation collected this EP along with another release and a couple of covers.  So I have actually heard everything here before.  No matter, I enjoy it quite a bit.

After a brief, almost electronic intro, the band breaks into "Prodigy of Solitude", which is a pretty good indication of the kind of stuff to expect from the band going forward.  Ruthlessly brutal with pounding riffs and crashing drums, Vomit Remnants is one of the best bands out of Japan's surprisingly great slam scene.  They are generally more dynamic than a lot of other slam bands with a high-energy approach that is somewhat unusual for the genre.  They also vary speeds quite often beyond the typical band of the style.  Of course there are the breakdown (or slam) parts that Vomit Remnants does quite well, but by and large this is not quite your run-of-the-mill slam band.

The only real issue I have with this release is the live tracks thrown in at the end.  The production values of those tracks is just ridiculously awful.  The drums can be heard, but very little else.  They are also kind of superfluous and were not on the original release.

I remain a fan of slam death metal, though finding good bands these days is not easy.  Vomit Remnants was one of the first slam bands I discovered and they remain one of my favorites.  This EP is a good example of why.

5 More Favorite Slam Albums

During Slam Week Pt. 1, I listed my five favorite slam albums, which included releases from Wormed, Devourment, Sarcolytic, Defeated Sanity, and Dying Fetus.  Since I have added a bunch of slam albums since then, I figured I would update that post with some more.

ABOMINABLE PUTRIDITY: IN THE END OF HUMAN EXISTENCE
Abominable Putridity is a Russian slam death metal band that has had a number of different vocalists over the years, including well-known grunters like Big Chocolate and Matti Way.  This album features the much less well-known Vladimir, but nevertheless was one of my favorite slam albums early on.  There is not much to say here, it is just typical slam, but it is performed highly competently.  There is a reason Abominable Putridity is one of the first bands recommended when getting into the genre.  It is a very good gateway.

BODYSNATCH: INSIGHTS OF A ROTTEN THEATRE
I have not had this one very long but it made an immediate impression on me.  This is a truly original album by a slam death metal band with a variety of other influences and some highly unusual moments thrown in.  Part of the reason behind the odd moments is the fact that two of the members were previously in Stream of Consciousness, a progressive metal band.  I am not really sure what the decision-making process of going from progressive metal to slam death metal was like, but I have absolutely no complaints.  This is one of the best slam death metal albums in years.

INTERNAL BLEEDING: VORACIOUS CONTEMPT
This album is one of the very early roots of slam death metal.  It came out in 1995, after the beginnings of the genre were carved out by Suffocation and Pyrexia.  Internal Bleeding took some of those ideas and built upon them, which eventually lead to the basic sound of slam death metal as we know it.  Devourment then took the ideas from Internal Bleeding and kept improving on them.  This though is one of the early true slam death metal albums.  This was a hugely influential album on the beginnings of the slam death genre.  The music itself is fairly simple and it is clear that Suffocation was the band's major influence, but Internal Bleeding did not have the technical mastery that Suffocation had, which helped lead them into the slam genre.

PUTRID PILE: HOUSE OF DEMENTIA
A one-man slam/brutal death metal band, Putrid Pile is still an extremely powerful and extremely loud band.  The band is Shaun LaCanne who performs all of the vocals and guitar and bass parts and programs the drum machine.  The drum machine is barely noticeable as the rest of the music is done so well.  This is a very impressive album which shows the ability to make slam death sound fresh and interesting.  This is a much faster-paced album than some other albums from the genre and the speed of the riffs is probably its best quality.  I am also very impressed with the Deicide-esque layered vocals.

VOMIT REMNANTS: SUPREME VEHEMENCE
This is kind of cheating.  This album from Japan's Vomit Remnants is actually a compilation of the band's Supreme Entity full-length from 1999 and the Indefensible Vehemence EP from 2001.  So it is actually one and a half albums, but I am still counting it because I absolutely love it.  Vomit Remnants bring an almost machine-like precision to slam death metal.  There are parts that are almost industrial metal-esque.  Japan has been blessed with a number of very good slam death metal bands, Vomit Remnants is probably one of the best.

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.