I like simple stuff. I’m no musician (I think my guitar teacher Jack would agree) and I can’t get into hyper technical metal. Stuff that gets guitar nerds worked up into a frothy mess tends to leave me cold. I appreciate the talent and skill involved but that stuff tends not to be the most memorable to me. I sometimes think that making basic heavy as fuck music, of any metal genre, is a bit of a dying art especially in death metal these days. I want chunky grinding riffs that I’ll remember, drums that sound like a pissed maniac building a shed and vocals that resemble someone vomiting up their own guts… a bit like that bird in Fulci’s ‘Gates Of Hell’. This is the stuff you remember and enjoy spinning repeatedly…. Unless you’re one of those tech nerds in which case you’re probably stuck in your room playing Necrophagist & Origin cds….through headphones, smelling of TCP and wondering if you’re ever going to lose your virginity.
If you share my love of all things simple then you’ll love the first full length album jam packed full of basic death /grind from these Frenchies. Putrid Offal make a right old racket. Basic & bludgeoning. The band have been grinding it out since the very early 90’s, releasing a handful of demos and splits and have finally got off their arses to give us this. Essentially all the demos & splits, re-recorded on modern kit in a decent studio. Unlike some bands that go down this route, the record sounds really cohesive.
The closest comparison I can make is that they sound like a groove drenched blend of very early Carcass and Bolt Thrower…. That alone should chub you up a treat. Riffs tend to be stonking great monoliths of grinding simplicity – the main riff to ‘From Plasma To Embalming’ is sooooo Bolt / Carcass and put a massive grin on my face.
The band like a bit of atmosphere too and there’s some nice little morbid interludes and some wicked dual vocals. The production is killer too. Nothing fancy, just disease drenched and thick – exactly what is required to get the best from these tunes. It’s a tasty package too as the second CD contains all the original recordings remastered from the original analog master tapes. So there you are – pretty much everything this band has ever done.
Putrid Offal. Get it in your ears.
(8/10 Mark Eve)
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