“We’re not like those other death metal bands who sing about killing and blood and guts. We sing about silly shit like a Nun taking a piss in the font”
This statement (Or words to that effect), straight from the mouth of Sam, the vocalist of Foetal Juice pretty accurately sums up their approach to making death metal magic. Inspired by a plethora of death and grind bands like Lock Up, Desecration, Vomitory, Cryptopsy and Cannibal Corpse, the Bury based four piece are a well known name in the UK and European death metal scene with many thanks to their formidable live displays, especially shows like their appearances at Obscene Extreme and more recently, Bloodstock Open Air. Being a long time fan of the filthy four, I was delighted when Rob (a.k.a Richard Branson, drums) sent me the presser for this release. With that said, let’s get silly.
As mentioned before, despite the serious and professional nature of this band with their work ethic and performances, the quartet sure have a sense of humour which is evident in the song titles and the lyrics themselves and in parts, in the music too. Opening track “Dutch Oven” hits hard with its blistering riffs and ferocious vocals over a tight as fuck rhythm section, all the while drawing inspiration from that incident where a man let one drop in bed and inadvertently suffocated his girlfriend when he pulled the sheets up. If that kind of humour doesn’t sit well then just go, because you seriously need to re-evaluate some life choices you have made.
Live performance favourite “Noneckahedron” is dedicated to Corpsegrinder himself, complete with copious amounts of headbanging and imaginary neck muscle flexing and another live favourite, “Nun So Vile” is the basis for that quote in the introduction of this review – it’s about a nun taking a piss in the font and being a bit of a dirty bitch really. Whilst these songs do have some real humorous aspects, the music is deadly serious when it comes to the relentless drums, intricate and technical basslines, meaty tone laden riffing and one of the best UK based death metal vocalists laying down the lyrics.
With the hefty amount of death metal and grind on display musically, it’s no surprise this ten track terror clocks in round the 35 minute mark and to be honest, if it were any longer, it would lack the explosive impact it has. The sheer fury of the tracks, compacted into just over three minutes long (on average) makes multiple listens easy and helps it keep that same initial impact it has. With their studio sound matching that energetic and ferociously raw live quality the band has, it’s a no brainer why all the tracks on this album deliver where you would expect them to for a band delivering this style of music.
Having pretty much all their releases up to this point, the evolution of the band musically has been substantial, but thankfully, the sense of humour has remained the same. From the early days with tracks like ‘Colostomy Baguette’, ‘Service Station masturbation’ and ‘Brewkakke’ to the viral and phenomenal ‘Albert Grindstein’ to this, Foetal Juice are absurdly good and people really should know about them!
(9/10 Fraggle)
https://www.facebook.com/FoetalJuice
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