A Pretext to Human Suffering is a new band on the technical brutal death metal, with hints of slam and deathcore, scene. The band features some very high profile names within the community where Marco Pitruzzella on drums is probably the one who stands out the most due to his time in bands such as Rings of Saturn, Six Feet Under, Sobek, Brain Drill and Habitual Depravity. Add 3/5 members of Defleshed and Gutted (two of those are also in Devour the Unborn), a band I personally love and spin ever so often and you got a recipe for great metal ahead! Sadly it doesn’t quite live up to my high expectations.
The guitar solos are on point with the title track “Rotting Sanctum” and “No Light Lives” goes super hard which both ends up being highlights on this EP. I do find the vocals being too low on the album overall whereas it’s extra noticeable on “Chain of Command // Oppression” to me, a track I end up skipping quite quickly. On “No Light Lives” that isn’t an issue do for some reason as the mix there is perfect. That kinda ruins quite a bit of the experience with Rotting Sanctum in my opinion which is a shame, but also showcase the importance of great production. The guitars though, song after song the riffing is great which is definitely a main reason for me to get back to Rotting Sanctum for a few songs. Otherwise there isn’t anything that stands out enough on Rotting Sanctum that makes me want to take this album for repeat listens, fans of the genre might want to take this for a spin or two but probably jump on to the next album after that.
A shame the production bothers me quite a bit (the sound quality and levels are honestly quite different from track to track, almost like they were recorded on separate sessions with different hardware) as it could potentially be a more solid album if that was better handled, however for now the album suffers for it. Close to a three but there wasn’t enough for me to justify that score when the mixing was bellow average where there were only really two, maybe three songs on a five song EP that I could recommend. “No Light Lives” is a song that goes damn hard though and that will feature on my playlist(s) for a long time. If they keep the levels of “No Light Lives”, “Rotting Sanctum” or even “Loathe” with a decent mix to go with it then next time around I’m sure to have a way better time with A Pretext to Human Suffering. This is only a debut EP though, which did have some good moments, and the members surely have what it takes to dance with the bigger names out there, just not yet.
Artist: A Pretext to Human Suffering Label: Realityfade Records Release date: November 27th, 2020 Favorite track: No Light Lives For fans of: Defleshed and Gutted & Bleak Flesh Score: 2.5/5 Decent
This time the album of the month section is coming a late, I’ve simply had too much to do past few weeks. However here it is the 4th edition, 1/3 of the year complete and even though it took a few weeks before most of the good albums dropped we yet again have some great albums to show!
Album of the month
Månegarm – Fornaldarsagor
Månegarm seems to do no wrong and Fornaldarsagor is a stunning album. In my opinion this is their best release since Vargstenen, which is hard to beat as it’s considered a viking metal masterpiece! Released April 26th via Napalm Records.
Runners-up
Gods Forsaken – Smells of Death
Their sophomore album is even better than their also great debut. One of the best HM-2 swedeath albums you will hear all year! Released April 19th via Soulseller Records.
Enterprise Earth – Luciferous
As one that have never truly got behind the Enterprise Earth hype train this took me by surprise. While they’ve released good albums in the past this is one of the best deathcore albums I’ve heard since I started this blog three years ago. If not for Månegarm releasing an album of the year contender this would be my album of the month pick. Released April 5th via Entertainment One Music.
Murg – Strävan
Yet another surprise. This time due to the fact I hadn’t listened to the band prior to Strävan though. Strävan is the bands third release and after going through their old stuff I dare say this is their best yet and the best black metal release of the month. Released April 26th via Nordvis Produktion.
Dawn of Demise – Into the Depths of Veracity
Dawn of Demise is, together with Illdisposed, the best death metal band Denmark has. Into the Depths of Veracity is yet another class release from these mad fuckers. Released April 19th via Unique Leader Records.
Honorable mentions
Numenorean – Adore Istapp – The Insidious Star AntropomorphiA – Merciless Savagery Hath – Of Rot and Ruin Hedonihil – I Dethrone The Corrupted – Sintrophia Belzebubs – Pantheon of the Nightside Gods Marianas Rest – Ruins Allegaeon – Apoptosis Mephorash – Shem Ha Mephorash After The Burial – Evergreen Mist Of Misery – Unalterable Waldgeflüster – Mondscheinsonaten 2 Wolves – …Our Fault Archaic Decapitator – The Apothecary Devour the Unborn – Liturgy of Irreverent Oblation Wormwitch – Heaven That Dwells Within
Looks like Texas death metal is back on the menu metalgamers! Devour the Unborn is the brutal death/slam horde created by Joseph Carrillo in 2011 which had quite some underground success on their two first albums Consuming the Morgue Remains and Meconium Pestilent Abomination. It went home with the slam fam but the band has always had a problem getting a solid lineup going. Both guitarists and vocalists have come and gone during the years and for this EP there are two new faces, Swedish guy Andy Tseung (Immersed in Blood, ex-Vomitous) on vocals and Ramon Peña (Defleshed and Gutted) on guitars. With Peña and Carrillo both being in Defleshed and Gutted I hope this time around the lineup can get some consistency and hopefully get a bass player to make it complete. That aside I know you wonder, does Liturgy of Irreverent Oblation slam hard?
Quick answer is yes, it does. Only thing I’ve heard this year that’s heavier to my eardrums is Epicardiectomy but these two bands are totally different beast, especially with the drum snare sound (which I know a lot of people find being goofy when it comes to Epicardiectomy). This is more straight forward Texas brutality which the giants Devourment bulldozed its way into the extreme metal scene in the late 90’s. The five songs clocking in on 18 minutes is enough to have me convinced this is the best Devour the Unborn has ever looked. Tseung is such an incredible vocalist! I might be a bit biased being Swedish and all but I think he is one of the best in the scene at the moment, his gutterals can wake the dead (or kill the living, whatever floats your boat). Devour the Unborn even made a new recording of their hit “Cesspool of Stillborns”, and guess what? It sounds even meaner and got more meat on its bones with this crew going at it! A great song becoming even greater, which easily became my favorite (again) on this album. That being said their newly written material is killer too, it’s just hard not to choose such a beast song when it is probably the best Devour the Unborn has released so far. A slam classic.
If you’ve enjoyed Devour the Unborn in the past you will gobble this right up. Hell slam and brutal death metal fans all around the globe should get right on this album anyways as this is some of the sickest shit you will hear all year. Bring your hammers folks because it’s about to get rowdy in here!
Written by J.B.
Label: Lord of the Sick Recordings For fans of: Vulvectomy and Devourment Release date: April 14th, 2019 Favorite song: Cesspool of Stillborns Score: 4/5 Incredible
A band that made some waves in the brutal death metal community straight from the bat on their 2012 debut Consuming the Morgue Remains is the international act Devour the Unborn. Since then there has been a lot of problems on finding a stable trio, did the joining of Andy Tseung from Sweden finally made the line-up complete? With a new album coming in April I thought it was the right time to have a chat with the founding member Joseph Carrillo.
Could you start by telling me and the readers some history of the band? How did it all start?
Joseph: Hello! I started Devour The Unborn back in 2007 but didn’t do anything with it until 2011 when we self-released a Demo and got signed to Ossuary Industries. We then recorded our debut in 2012 and it literally blew the doors wide open, I was not ready or anticipating that sort of reaction. I guess we just came in at the right time.
How did you happen to get the fellow Swede Andy Tseung in the band? What’s the story there?
Joseph: Devour The Unborn has been plagued with frontmen issues since it’s inception, in 2016 I found myself without a full lineup and in need of a vocalist, if I was going to move forward with this band, I knew i had to make some adjustments and consider the possibility that DTU could work better as an international band rather than a local band, I already knew I wanted to ask Andy because I have been a huge fan of his vocals since I heard him in Vomitous, I knew his crushing gutturals would compliment the texas pit riffs, so I asked him about joining up and he was down right away, this was in october 2017 i believe, we didn’t announce his addition into the band until mid 2018 because I wanted to have some riffs in the oven before announcing anything, fast forward, we have completed our first collaberation which is the mCD entitled “Liturgy of Irreverent Oblation” we’re already working on our next DTU release for Lord of the Sick Records which should be dropping in late 2019. Two DTU albums in one year. Talk about coming back with a bang.
Being an international band with members around the globe I can guess the process when creating music is a bit different. Talk us through the process on how the upcoming EP Liturgy of Irreverent Oblation was created.
Joseph: It’s actually even easier this way, I’m the one that writes all the music and then I send it out to Andy and he does his thing, when DTU had local members I still had to help with the lyrics and with vocal patterns, I basically had my hand in everything which can be cool but sometimes i just want to write a song and not have to worry about anything else, now it is far more professional and I thoroughly enjoy it more. Less stress.
You share both ex and current members of Defleshed and Gutted (who also released a great album last year), was that how you got in touch with Lord of the Sick Recordings?
Joseph: Myself and TJ Lara are also in Defleshed and Gutted, we just released a banger of an album late 2018, how I got in touch with LOTS was because I was having issues with a former label, I decided Defleshed and Gutted needed a more professional, responsible label and reached out to LOTS, I’ve worked with them in the past and never had any issues with them and while we were in talks about releasing DAG album i decided to offer them both bands and they were more than happy to accept. It’s a win/win for everyone.
Talk about Liturgy of Irreverent Oblation, what can brutal death metal fans expect from it?
Joseph: They can expect the most crushing, brutal, pit-inducing musick come out of DTU to be put on record, sickest vocals on any DTU release and the best produced DTU album thus far. Our 2nd full-length had some really great bangers but unfortunately the production was utter failure, although I understand some fans really do enjoy it, which is why I plan to re-record most of those songs on every new DTU release in order to give them proper justice. Kinda like how Suffocation are re-recording songs off the breeding the spawn album.
Texas seems to be a region that keeps on giving great brutal death metal bands, why do you think that is?
Joseph: It’s the heat, it’s hotter than satans ass out here, especially in our region, it’s dry and unforgiving, the west is brutal and so is the gotdamn weather. Arizona get’s it worse but we’re not far behind. I hope that’s a good enough answer.
The art for Liturgy of Irreverent Oblation looks sick (made by Armaada Art), how was it working with the artist to come up with that? Was it a long process or did you know from the start how you wanted it to look?
Joseph: We didn’t come up with the idea, it was created by label owner Maxim, when he asked me what kind of art direction we wanted to go, my mind was buried in riffs and soley focused on that. Andy was moving into a new home so he was occupied as well, I basically left it in the hands of the label to get it going while we finished up the mCD, the end result was amazing, certainly did not see that coming, very hapy.
What’s your favorite albums of all time?
Joseph: Devourment – Molesting the Decapitated Suffocation – Effigy of the Forgotten Dying Fetus – Killing on Adrenaline Internal Bleeding – Voracious Contempt Disgorge – She Lay Gutted Cryptopsy – None So Vile Prophecy – Foretold, Foreseen Dehumanized – Prophecies Foretold Deathspell Omega – Trilogy Misfits – Earth AD Minor Threat – Minor Threat Immolation – Here in After Morbid Angel – Formulas Fatal to the Flesh
Got a favorite game of all time?
Joseph: I like a lot games man, I usually fuck with Diablo the most though, but man, that’s a tough question. Too many games, so little time.
Thanks for your time, any shoutouts or other last words?
Joseph: Shout out to my boys in Defleshed And Gutted and Devour The Unborn, the Sick Boys in Lord of the Sick, Alex Cadaver, Reinier Van Loon and UltraMagnus from Old Skull Zine, Brian Wynn and Kill Everything, TJ Mundy and Putrid Womb, Nefarious Zombie, the Sculpting Atrocity crew, all my buds in Texas I’ll see y’all soon, my brother Danny G from Seraphic Enthronement, my boy Joe H from Omnicast, Joe L from Disgruntled Anthropophagi, Jake Nelson from Post Mortal Possession, Donovan Dettle and Parasitic Ejaculation, Jason L and Putrified J, Joe K (SWW) , the sick Aussie crew from Nails of Imposition, all our online and real life supporters, we appreciate you all a lot, go to lordsick.com and grip our new album from DAG and DTU and all the sick bands on our roster. Thanks for the interview Jimmy! Best of luck with your zine bro!
What’s this, progressive brutal death metal? Does that even exist? Apparently it does and it’s the American duo Will Peplinski and Anthony Viscusi who’s made something rather unique and named it, as awesome as it is, Swine Overlord. Entheogenesis is the bands second full-length actually as the band released Parables of Umbral Transcendence in 2014. Since then the band has taken the song-writing even further and Entheogenesis is a concept album “which offers a unique look at the development of the human psyche through the lens of western religion and eastern spirituality” as stated on their store. The album cover is stunning and is created by Chinese artist Yang Guang (Equilibrium, Putridity, Inanimate Existence) who’s made one of his best works as of yet.
I was unsure what to expect from this album as I’d never heard of this cross-over of genres before. After listening to Entheogenesis though I just want more of this. Think Beyond Creation molded with Black Crown Initiate on speed and you’re halfway there. This is great. The song-writing and religious horror-story filled with gore is crazy epic and Swine Overlord are great at changing the tempo throughout the whole album. The instrumental intermissions, as you can call it, in the album works great to add extra prog to the party (I: The Creator and Riverchrist for example). Meld it all together and you have yourself an album that stands out and is beautiful yet sick and brutal. Now excuse me while I dig into all of Swine Overlord’s discography while I keep on telling you how great they are.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SwineOverlord
For fans of: Decimated Humans and Beyond Creation
Favorite song: Procreating the Offspring of Gods and Men
The Metal Gamer 