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Tag Archives: Ohio
UnKured – Mutated Earth
Hailing from Ohio, US death/thrash outfit Unkured self-released their sophomore album, Mutated Earth, late last year. Sliptrick Records has signed the band and re-released the album to give it a better chance of reaching a wider audience.
Currently a two-piece consisting of Cody Knarr (Vocals & Guitars) and Ben Stanton (Bass) after the recent departure of Adam Green (Drums) the band are progressively-leaning Thrash/death crossover outfit with some big ambitions. Knarr’s vocals are very reminiscent of Chuck Schuldiner’s tortured screams, both in sound and phrasing, while the music behind it is equally adventurous as Schuldiner’s later albums with Death.
An ever-changing maelstrom of riffs, no two minutes on Mutated Earth are the same, let along two tracks. From the opening assault of the title-track, Mutated Earth is a swirling barrage of staccato shredding, blast beats and snarling vocals. It’s relentless but the sheer volume of riffs on offer keeps this sounding fresh.
Aside from the heavy Death influences and a general aura of 90s death metal, there are moments recalling classic Slayer and the occasional nod the more melodic elements of Gothenburg-based melo-death, especially in the solos. The likes of ‘Anti-Terraforming’, ‘…Into Crumbling Ruin’ and ‘They Live, We Sleep’ are vicious but intricate, combining the seriously brutal with some impressively technical musicianship – especially on the solos and in the outgoing Green’s drumwork.
There’s nothing resembling hooks or choruses; this is complex and demands your attention to be fully appreciated. Mutated Earth is heavy, ambitious and adventurous. Not afraid to show off its influences, it balances paying tribute without being derivative better than most. Well worth a listen if you want to hear the music of Death brought back to life for 45 minutes.
8/10
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DAN SWINHOE
Necrophagia – WhiteWorm Cathedral
Although they released one of the first US death metal albums with 1987’s Season of the Dead (New Renaissance), Ohio natives Necrophagia have never been regarded as pioneers of the genre, instead more of a tired old sideshow masquerading under the banner of a ‘cult band.’ Despite the patronage of Phil Anselmo and the dogged nature of mainman Killjoy, Necrophagia just quite simply aren’t worthy of much attention when one considers how fertile the US scene currently is. It’s a problem they do little to address on seventh full-length WhiteWorm Cathedral (Season of Mist).
If mid-paced, plodding death metal that never even hints at stepping out of its comfort zone is your thing, then WhiteWorm Cathedral may hold some appeal. With its frequent use of horror movie samples, big chugging riffs and rasped vocals depicting morbid tales of violence, the supernatural and gore, Necrophagia have always played to the choir and over the course of 50 minutes they carry on the formula that is all they know to an almost religious level of conformity. Of course, the same accusation could be levelled at all manner of bands from AC/DC to Eyehategod, but the problem here is that most songs will have you reaching for the skip button and wondering when things are going to rise above the mundane. Unfortunately that moment never comes.
While the hefty chugging and ghostly keyboards of ‘Rat Witch’ may march onwards like a sinister George Romero zombie and the snaking riffs of ‘Angel Blake’ at least possesses a hook, the vast majority of WhiteWorm Cathedral is just too dull and generic to make any kind of lasting impression. Meat and potatoes without the gravy. Or should that be fleshy chunks without the blood?
Either way, this is one corpse that just needs to lie silent.
4.0/10
JAMES CONWAY
Fistula – Vermin Prolificus
The opening lazy riff and bass line of Vermin Prolificus (PATAC), the sixth album from Ohio scuzzbuckets Fistula, is so volumed up that the resonance is staggering, and is probably the lowest and heaviest rumble I’ve heard since Ramesses departed our world. It’s typically bloody nasty this, despite guitarist Corey Bing being the only remaining member from their last effort six years ago. New vocalist Dan Harrington possesses a largely guttural scream which drives opener ‘Smoke, Cat Hair and Toenails’, the message of which is forced home by an overabundance of archive recordings, including an apparently televised drugs intervention which reappears throughout.
The ensuing ‘Harmful Situation’ is grind-like punk, one of a few short and snappy moments slightly belying the sludge tag but remaining heavy and very hostile. There’s a certain dangerous irresponsibility at times with the glut of sound-bites at the head of ‘Pig Funeral’ also serving a purpose: to paint a purulent, diseased message of police hatred and murder, and lay the path for a tune that would doubtless gratify any number of cop-murdering scumbags festering behind their iron bars. Frustratingly, the track itself is a largely glorious wade through a thick, fizzing morass, picking up pace in the last third to a filthy grind diatribe dripping in grimy goop. It will have you squirming in your seat or screaming bloody revolution, depending on your point of view.
Given the seemingly puerile messages here it’s easy to dismiss this mob as sensationalist noise makers but there’s more substance beneath the shocking veneer. The brief ‘Upside Down’ displays the usual genre mantra of “Hell is other people” and is played with a real menace, but there’s a sense of pity that stirs as well as unsettles. The title track, a rumbling, oozing undercurrent, picks up on that intervention amid other narcotic messages, and the samples are often so full of despair that the band’s intent is somewhat inscrutable.
Whatever the intent, through sound alone this is an uneasy yet captivating listen, full of disgustingly dirty throbbing noise and malevolence, and despite that reliance on sound-bites, it demands your attention.
7.5/10
PAUL QUINN