Look, this is a genuine effort to fend off waves of tweets and horseshit comments like “well, everybody in metal borrows from somebody” or “not everybody is reinventing the wheel.” As someone who’s only been listening to extreme music for the last twenty-five years, I think I get it. Metallica? More like we love Diamond Head. Slayer? Oh, you mean Venom if they actually knew how to play their instruments? Sepultura? Slayer if they were even better at their craft?
The point is, the genre is always repurposing and stitching in bits that came in before, but then you have something like Reality Rotten to the Core (Everlasting Spew Records) from FesterDecay. Not only do they worship Carcass but they are trying their best to be the most pristine (or putrid) Xerox copy you can get of Reek of Putrefaction.
One of the most influential metal bands of all time, Carcass? Yes, that’s the one. The same unit that inspired Cattle Decapitation, Exhumed, Arsis and their ilk. I’d argue that the opening riff in ‘Incarnated Solvent Abuse’ is the sole reason we were blessed with The Black Dahlia Murder’s entire catalog. So, the idea of “Carcass clones” isn’t new, but what FesterDecay is doing is just fancy plagiarism.
The barbaric production comes straight from the aforementioned Reek or Symphonies of Sickness. Did you enjoy the way Jeff Walker and Bill Steer’s vocals made for some monstrous guttural lows? Cool, because vocalist KK2 has got the emulation down pat. The best part of the standout track ‘Aborticide?’ Well, good thing they borrowed it wholesale from ‘Pyosified (Still Rotten to the Gore).’ But just in case you didn’t quite get it, the boys in FesterDecay made sure to include something called ‘Carcasses’ Revenge.’ They really are looking out for us.
If the whole point was to copy Carcass’ homework then why not just be a cover band? At least All That Remains didn’t call one of their efforts At The Gates is the Heckin’ Best.
Buy the album here:
6 / 10
HANS LOPEZ