These three delightful gentlemen hail from Germany. They’ve been active for over a decade, and as far as I can discern, “Necrotic Flesh Bacteria” is their third full length album. I was expecting something in the vein of Goregrind from the album title, but dear reader, I was wrong. This is pretty sick oldschool death metal much more inspired by the likes of Autopsy or Massacre.

The approach is an interesting one. This is a band that likes to break out the mid-tempo chug, but the bring things crashing down to an extremely slow crawl with some of the most sickening, bowel-loosening sloppy bass tone you’re going to hear outside of funeral doom. Second track “Digging Through Skin” has such a loose and ragged sound that it’s like being exhumed yourself. The drum sound is also curiously unpolished; the drums are raw and slightly echoey, like they’re being played in some kind of stygian crypt. The guitar sound is pretty accurate to the early Death sound – more thrash than death metal, with a bright scything honesty that collides against the depraved bass sound.

There’s plenty of groove here, though it’s often accompanied with a really inventive song structure. “Oozing Pox” is a great example of this. It thrashes, then it goes into full blown blasting before settling down into that repulsive grumbling Autopsy chug. It shouldn’t work, but like with the work of the era, it somehow does. Unlike their forebears, Cryptic Brood aren’t writing songs naively – this has been written this way, and yet it’s still effective.

It’s also an atmospheric and pretty spooky album. When “Hallucinogenic Poison” starts with its slightly off kilter melody and shuffling, zombie-drag drum introduction, it has more evocative atmosphere than all of the current tech-death and various-core bands collected. This is disturbing stuff, and it actually sounds depraved and unhinged in all the right ways. If modern death metal albums are blu-ray 4k high definition modern movies, then “Necrotic Flesh Bacteria” are lo-fi 4th generation VHS video nasties. It’s fun stuff, but you’re going to feel grimy after you’ve listened to it.

Recommended then? Hell yes. There isn’t much out there that comes with its own attention to aesthetics. This is all about the vibe, all about how it makes you feel. It’s a horror movie of an album. It’s a bit ragged around the edges – it’s echoey and (by modern standards) unpolished – and all the better for it. Tremendously fun!

(7.5/10 Chris Davison)

https://www.facebook.com/CrypticBrood

https://war-anthem-records.bandcamp.com/album/necrotic-flesh-bacteria