Nephrectomy – Interspecies Bondage (Morbid Generation Records; 2014)
Feels good to be back.
For everyone who thinks that the new Nephrectomy CD is pure slam – no, it really is not. Far from it actually. It´s pretty much exactly what the album cover tells your musical sense to think – groovy Slamgrind. And that’s pretty much everything you actually need to know about it – if you like Slam and you like Porngrind or Goregrind – then this CD is for you. No really, it´s that simple, go and pick it up right now if this is your kind of music. If not – I´d suggest you check out a song on youtube and see where it goes but if you hate the grindy stuff then you should stay away from this record.
Lets get into the sound.
The guitars sound like a VST with lots of presence and treble. The mids are pretty much left out of the picture which is a shame because it would have given some of the slower parts a wider feel. It doesn´t sound “bad” but rather like a characteristic sound. Not a bad idea considering this whole album is something fresh – stylistically spoken. The drums sound fine. You can hear that it is a drum-computer but it doesn´t sound robotic – it just sounds like your standard drum-sound. So its nothing you could condemn but nothing that is exceptional either. About the bass – I really wasn´t able to find one in the mix, maybe it just sits really tight with the guitar, but then again this isn´t technical progressive death metal. You don´t really need a fat bass that is delivering killer parts and stuff. It just needs to groove, and that it does! The vocals are characteristic for exactly one guy. If you hear those vocals and you heard them before you know exactly who it is, and that is pretty cool because it´s unique and just fits the whole thing. They are far from anything deep, low guttural but more “throat-y”. There isn´t much more to say about the sound so I´ll stop right here.
At this point I would usually go into the songs, see what the structure is, special riffs, hooks, great refrains, solos etc. etc. – but here it´s really not necessary. There is pretty much only one thing to say about the songs and the songwriting: Slam + Porn/Gore-Grind. There you go. If you know both genres then you know what to expect here. The cool thing and the thing that makes this CD stick out is the mixture. This is the kind of stuff you don´t hear too often. Now there is a good chance you´ll really don´t like this album, and that’s ok, but if you do you´ll know that this is something you won´t find too often within the boundaries of the whole brutal death genre.
Synopsis:
If you like Slam mixed with Grind – this CD is for you – if you don´t like one of the two – this CD probably isn´t for you. Simple as that. What the guys created here is unique – and that’s something that makes this CD stick out of the pile of boring slam that has flooded the genre with mediocrity. If this CD has a chance of being one of your long-time favourites depends on how much you like both genres but it´s good enough to put on your mp3 player or in your car for the occasional spin when you´re in the mood! And with 30 minutes of music there is enough meat on this bone to be worth your money!
Written by: Johannes Schmailzl
Guttural Death - Metal News 