ALBUM REVIEW: Excretion of Mortality – Cerebral Rot

The wretched credo of CEREBRAL ROT doesn’t take long to figure out. The Seattle four piece are here, primarily, to churn your guts. Their barrel scraping, sludging death metal sound hits new levels of acidity on sophomore effort Excretion Of Mortality. Purposefully toeing the line between grandiose violence and gimmick like bloodletting, it’s a record designed to exercise your comfort levels.

Despite its innate cruelty, Excretion Of Mortality always hands you an olive branch of technicality. The title track’s opening riff crawls build legitimate anxiety – you’re forced to wait for the punch. Once the verse explodes out of its clinical intro though, you’re face down in the cesspit. Guitarists Clyle Lindstrom and Ian Schwab manipulate tempo sweeps at the drop of a dime, and even in this whirlpool of fury, Clyle‘s spidering lead riff has a genuine hook to it.

Schwab‘s frankly absurd vocal lines often dictate the foul atmosphere. Retching Innards‘ groove laid guitar cuts give a false sense of security; a brief respite from his ghastly rasps. They’re a red herring though. He soon returns with a demonic howl and resumes control. He’s a necessary evil though, his centrepiece splurges of vitriol tie the surrounding sounds of anguish together neatly.

Vile Yolk Of Contagion highlights the band’s efficiency. Excretion Of Morality will rightly be remembered for its harsh tunings and unforgiving stomp. But the quartets true craftmanship finds its way through the toxic waste to show itself here. Moments of death doom are offset against spells of peak thrash: Lindstrom channels Kerry King‘s spellbinding shred power on the tracks solo. That’s not to mention the frantic pace shifts that run through its closing two minutes, this is death metal mastery.

Standing as the record’s final, but most demanding endurance test; Crowning The Disgustulent is an 11 minute flamethrower. Book ended by post, and then sludge metal, it travels across the extreme spectrum with little regard for its surroundings. Schwab is once again puppet master. His shouts of oblivion across the middle eight are the closest 2021 has got to audible horror.

A record of this intensity should not be such a fun listen. In fact, Excretion Of Mortality should feel like a chore to complete. But that’s not the case, its juncture’s of technicality come in to splice up the chaos at just the right times.

Rating: 7/10

Excretion Of Mortality is set for release on June 25th via 20 Buck Spin. 

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