Gorerotted - Only Tools & Corpses
2004 - Metal Blade Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Metal Blade Records web site.
Gorerotted are doing pretty well for themselves these days - since the release of their debut album, they landed a worldwide distribution deal for that disc with Relapse Records, gotten themselves signed to Metal Blade Records and are soon to headline the 2004 Unique Leader Europe sponsored Rotterdam Death Fest. So, the time seems right to give their latest gore-drenched platter of splatter a thorough seeing-to.
'Only Tools & Corpses' is, unsurprisingly, a hyperspeed lesson in gore-obsessed, tongue-in-cheek death metal, albeit with a somewhat punky edge to it that gives it an air of uniqueness. The vocals range from subsonic growls to an odd high-pitched screech with a vaguely cockney-inflection, which is certainly original and oddly fitting to the music. The drums clatter away at a fair old pace, coupling typewritter-blastbeats to fairly intricate fills to devastating effect. The guitars alternately bludgeon and then shred with intent to sever limbs, while the bassist lays down a gnarly, catchy rhythm to guide the tracks along their guttural groove.
There isn't much in the way of progression here (although the amount of gonzo humour seems to have increased), and beyond the odd touch like the intermittent solo-bass noodles in 'Her Gash I Did Slash', it's pretty much runaway gore-death-metal all the way, rather like Cannibal Corpse caught in a meat grinder with the sadly-defunct Regorge (one of whose number now resides in Gorerotted). It's entertaining, well-executed (haheho), but certainly not groundbreaking.
7/10
2004 - Metal Blade Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Metal Blade Records web site.
Gorerotted are doing pretty well for themselves these days - since the release of their debut album, they landed a worldwide distribution deal for that disc with Relapse Records, gotten themselves signed to Metal Blade Records and are soon to headline the 2004 Unique Leader Europe sponsored Rotterdam Death Fest. So, the time seems right to give their latest gore-drenched platter of splatter a thorough seeing-to.
'Only Tools & Corpses' is, unsurprisingly, a hyperspeed lesson in gore-obsessed, tongue-in-cheek death metal, albeit with a somewhat punky edge to it that gives it an air of uniqueness. The vocals range from subsonic growls to an odd high-pitched screech with a vaguely cockney-inflection, which is certainly original and oddly fitting to the music. The drums clatter away at a fair old pace, coupling typewritter-blastbeats to fairly intricate fills to devastating effect. The guitars alternately bludgeon and then shred with intent to sever limbs, while the bassist lays down a gnarly, catchy rhythm to guide the tracks along their guttural groove.
There isn't much in the way of progression here (although the amount of gonzo humour seems to have increased), and beyond the odd touch like the intermittent solo-bass noodles in 'Her Gash I Did Slash', it's pretty much runaway gore-death-metal all the way, rather like Cannibal Corpse caught in a meat grinder with the sadly-defunct Regorge (one of whose number now resides in Gorerotted). It's entertaining, well-executed (haheho), but certainly not groundbreaking.
7/10
