PUTRID OFFAL

Sicknesses Obsessions XENOKORP

Long-running Gallic gorehounds finally get their axe together

Given their 2015 debut, Mature Necropsy, was 24 years in the making, this French goregrind quartet’s second effort has arrived in a comparatively brisk five. And speed is certainly the name of the game once the visceral soundbites of opener Autopsy lead into the pulverising blitzkrieg Let There Be Rot. Drenched in perverse atmosphere and Frank Peiffer’s myriad vocals, Sickness Obsessions’

production ensures that every note bites like a rusty chainsaw. But while their debut showed variety due it to it being re-recordings of a decade’s worth of material, this latest collection also offers up a smorgasbord of repugnance. Whether it’s the rollicking Dura Mater, Charnel House and Glorify Me’s symphonic dashes, or the mid-paced eeriness and chug of Y Shaped, there’s plenty to keep you anchored as the 15 tracks hurtle by. ■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Exhumed, Autopsy, General Surgery ADAM REES

Riffs sway and stagger like cruel, cudgel-wielding drunks lurking in wait for weak prey after the pubs have kicked out and vocalist Ethan Lee Mccarthy continues to sound like a vomiting Klingon as he decries the vileness of everyone and everything. This slow-motion hell is tempered by wizened, woebegone electronics and blasting bouts of deconstructed black metal, with every rotten-cored moment designed to elicit maximum suffering. As the album title suggests it’s an ‘immersive’ experience, but not one that should be entered into lightly – unless, of course, you’re the kind of masochistic sort who wants to feel like they’re having their sternum slowly crushed by the world’s biggest cloven hoof. ■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Burning Witch, Toadliquor, Noothgrush

ALEX DELLER