Portugal may have their very own Rogga Johansson (Sweden) in the making, as Paulo M. Soares, whose project this is, has been involved in a raft of other acts, mostly in the death metal fold, within the Portuguese extreme metal scene. This multi-instrumentalist is a tour-de-force of that there is no doubt and whilst this debut album has an overarching old school death metal aura it is also tinged with melodic traits courtesy of keyboards and atmospherics that create a whole new persona that runs throughout.
With a distorted short fade-in, the album launches with ‘Feast Of The Dying Sluts’ and immediately that atmospheric feathering is evident, as the Swedeath influenced riffing and speed insertions blend with it nicely. The grisly nature of this album had me thinking about the Finnish death metal scene too such is the crossover, as the opener wields a ferocity and melody that works superbly. I love the riff that starts ‘Carnage In The Fog’ where the highly defined drum sound, especially snare, has that neck tendon snapping sound you can latch onto so you can exercise that part of your anatomy if required as the tune has guest lead breaks added. Pressing the foot firmer on the gas is ‘Rotten God’ where that drum sound creates a whip cracking tempo to set your head to, if your fast enough that is, as the tune delivers its deathly potency in reams, backed by the subtle atmosphere.
‘Dead Man’ is a monster of a track, that fans of old Dismember, Entombed, and their ilk will hook into as the tune is far more traditional in its delivery compared to the ambitious ‘Buried’, where a guest shredder is added by the name of Mario Figueira (Rage And Fire). Here we get that atmospheric backdrop in droves, pushing it into experimental areas but without loss of power creating a tune that is a highlight for me. Likewise, with ‘Time To Kill’, the grind like riff is slow and piercing before switching into a death ‘n’ roll groove that is exceedingly catchy.
Whether a homage to, just acknowledging or may be even no connection at all to Cannibal Corpse’s ‘Fuck With A Knife’, Paulo has created the grisly grinder of ‘Fucked With My Knife’, a very accessible number which is not a cover, instead the track harnesses a sewerage like style, slow and penetrating adding occasional speed injections to great effect as the atmospherics had me scribbling down Amorphis from their epic ‘The Karelian Isthmus’ album. What can be said about a tune called ‘Anal Ride’, its clichéd chainsaw and screaming woman doesn’t really add anything to the tune except an effect before the song drops into cruising crushing deathliness but still brandishing that aura of creepiness generated by the atmospherics.
There is a ghoulishness to ‘Cadaver Meal’, the way the doom-death like riffing crawls through is a total skin crawler before the album concludes with ‘Brainless Whore’ as again the utilisation of eerie drama via the riffing is superbly done. The sequential build up sees the tempo shift upwards slightly as again my Amorphis detector was on full here until the squealing guitar change and increase in pace returns to a Swedeath style. The use of dramatic pause is something this song and the album does extremely well, luring you in, wondering what is to come next as the song ends with a flurry of guitar work, accompanied by João Jacinto (Analepsy) as guest, before fading into background noises and what may be a film sample voice.
A fine debut from Ruttenskalle, whose name translates as Rotten Skull I believe from Swedish, an album loaded with an armoury of clever riffs, brutalising ingenuity but also the guile to create something that little bit different too.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
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