Sometimes, what you need is a short nasty and brutish release. That’s exactly what we have here from German death metallers Teratoma, with a 6 track mini CD that does exactly what it says on the tin.

The PR sheet says that the band were formed in Germany in 2020, so I am presuming that this is not a release from the Spanish death metal band of the same name (I am hoping an eagle-eyed reader will confirm this), and said sheet doesn’t actually tell me who the musicians are – so I guess this review will be as nature intended – purely from listening alone. What do we have then? Well, some mid-tempo, groove laden death metal in the vein of early 90’s bands, with some neat riffs on each of the effective tracks here. Vocally, the singing is of the extremely guttural and deep growling variety, though undoubtedly the champion of this piece are the guitars. There are an abundance of head-nodding passages (check out the Carcass-like section in “Corporeal Mess), but there are also some really effective melodies and solos plastered throughout the record too.

Elsewhere, songs like “Horrid Stench” have some bone-headed crawling sickness inducing sections, and the rhythm section underpins it with more low-level grunt than a muscle car. So sure, there’s nothing actually clever about any of this – it’s just pretty basic, addictive death metal, but at least it has the grace to know that the point of this exercise is to be an enjoyable listen. If you want poly-mathematical super-progressive sections, go and listen to something else. This is meat-and-potatoes dumb death metal. It’s less The Exorcist and more Halloween, but to be fair sometimes you just want something that goes for the jugular.

A great taster, and albeit the production is at parts a bit anaemic, which robs the band of a bit of their power, it’s still likely to put a grin on the face of any old school death metaller (which, dear reader, includes me). Worth checking out.

(7.5/10 Chris Davison)

https://www.facebook.com/TeratomaBerlin

https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/purulent-manifestations