ALBUM REVIEW: Context Is A Stumbling Corpse – Heretic Plague

“HERETIC PLAGUE is the sonic embodiment of nightmares, madness and extreme violence.” So say the press notes for the UK deathgrind duo’s debut album Context Is A Stumbling Corpse, which – let’s face it – already sounds pretty nightmarish before you even dare to press play. Here at Distorted Sound, we often come across album promos that talk a big talk but then don’t quite deliver with the music. We’re pleased to report though that this is not the case here, because Context Is A Stumbling Corpse is utterly vile from the very first second to the last.

Bleeding Stump Marathon gets underway with vocalist and beatmaster Tom Bradfield letting out a hellacious roar that sounds like it’s come straight from the bowels of the swamps of hell. Guitarist and bassist Adam Watts lays down a choice selection of riffs and runs, and the racket this pair is able to make is astounding. More astounding is Bradfield’s crackling higher vocals that come later, giving this blunt-force number a level of texture; all of a sudden, you’re noticing the details and intricacies of this brutal, blood-spattered crime scene and can’t help but be entranced by it. 

Skull Crawler is an absolute wall of noise that doesn’t so much crawl as it does swarm and infect. Polyrhythmic drum patterns add a separate nauseating element to the savagery before a final dense deluge of riffs finishes the job. Ubiquitous Gore meanwhile takes more of a psychological horror approach in its tension drone opening and its off-kilter final third where the guitars seem to drop out of tune to deliver a twisted and turbulent passage of madness. The way that HERETIC PLAGUE are able to disgust and ensnare all at once is nothing short of mesmeric and Context Is A Stumbling Corpse is an album that more than lives up to the nightmarish and spine-chilling product it promised to be.

The album also continues the fascinating tradition of brutal bands using brilliant samples from films and TV shows within their songs; a tradition that has seen PARTY CANNON use Jackass and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and CRYPTOPSY use the likes of The Matrix and The Exorcist III. Here, on Grandpa’s Hammer, HERETIC PLAGUE opt for the superb ‘inanimate object’ outburst from In Bruges, which feels perfectly paired with the sheer fury of what follows. “Sorry for calling you an inanimate object,” Ralph Fiennes‘ character says at the very close of this album, but something tells us that HERETIC PLAGUE aren’t sorry at all.

Nor should they be, because Context Is A Stumbling Corpse is one of those rare albums where you don’t love listening to it, but you just cannot stop yourself from coming back to it. Whether it’s to check that, yes, it really is that grotesquely heavy, or to prove to yourself that you can stomach the kind of aural torture it dishes out, it’s a gross and engrossing entry into the pantheon of deathgrind.

Rating: 8/10

Context Is A Stumbling Corpse is out April 7 via Selfmadegod Records.

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