Well, we’re in brutal death/borderline grind territory here with this debut EP. The pro-wrestling fans might also guess the subject of the title track too being about the fucking tragic murder of the family of Chris Benoit by Benoit and his suicide and who was a man with severely advanced dementia due to too many head shots (a truly shameful episode in wrestling history) as well as steroid use, rather than as the PR terms it ‘wrestler turned steroid fuelled murderer’.

But I digress.

Opener ‘The Snakehead Epidemic’ clatters in on ultra-guttural slam like vocals and biscuit tin snare sounds to the guitar run in place of actual riff but there’s also a nice thick sound and grunt to the lower end and, shock horror, some real hooks and dare I say it groove to it. Yeah we get the speeding runs of notes and the snare sound gets on my nerves (am I the only one who hates that dead snare sound style? Probably)

The title track has a long sound bite intro before the guitar runs and pig gurgling vocals come in (no that is not an insult.) When it becomes more of a riff than just runs the sound thickens once more and the song really comes into its own. Brutal it most certainly is but pretty good too. ‘Paralytic Wakening’ eases the vocals into a more varied area and shows real talent for this style and the guitar and bass manage that knack of piling on the tech and speed runs and tempo shifts with some frankly fantastic riffing. Fast and shifting and gnarly as anything. And with ‘Dr Heiter’s Creation (yeah Human Centipede clip included) we take a last dump with some weird melody in the background and exit.

Curious. There is a lot going on in each track here. I suspect I’d be less-impressed by the lyrical content, or maybe not, but this short regurgitation has tech bordering on math veins, thick brutal death muscle drumming, sickeningly catchy breakdowns and passages and far from one dimensional vocals too.

Yeah the EP is shocking in being so musically adept and cramming so much in. I am curious already to see how this holds up on a full length too when for me this stuff works best around the sub forty minute mark. Guess we’ll have to wait and hope.

I like being surprised. Definitely check this out if brutal, guttural and dexterous is your thing

(7/10 Gizmo)

https://comatosemusic.bandcamp.com/album/crippler-crossface-murder-suicide