ALBUM REVIEW: Corpus Offal – Corpus Offal
Although their first demo was released little over a year ago, CORPUS OFFAL have already managed to create an imposing aura around themselves. With the band featuring alumni from the likes of DEMONCY, BELL WITCH and CAUSTIC WOUND, the band’s ability to produce some world class death metal was never in doubt.
Even so, the material present on that short two song demo showcased an impressive take on the genre, leaning into a far bleaker and oppressive sound that makes this quartet sound so much more sinister. Their debut, self-titled album proves not only to be a celebration of death metal in its most primordial and visceral forms, but also develops the bands noxious style into something expansive and domineering, making this album and CORPUS OFFAL stand apart from many of their contemporaries.
Purging Creation is a dense start to the record, setting the stage for what immediately follows with its thick and minimalist sound. Spinous Forms of Mortal Abhorrence, the first full track on the album, is a glut of grating rhythms, jarring leads and sludgy, near impenetrable gutturals, matching the mid-paced, imposing feel of the preceding track whilst embracing chaotic, descending guitar work, lending this a classic death metal feel that gives this an over-arching, primal edge that is punctuated by chaotic flourishes and monstrous, rumbling basslines, capturing an old school sound without feeling as though it is operating solely within that musical framework.
Essence of Dissolution opts for a muscular, groove-laden sound with the guitars and vocals especially shifting towards a weightier approach that helps make this sound utterly intense, particularly when the pace picks up and the listener is treated to a fiercer, sharper take on its core sound. Corpus Offal sees the tar thick bass return with a vengeance, creating a monolithic backdrop to rabid, cutting guitars, juggernaut drumming and low, gurgling vocals that again evokes an oppressive and unnerving brand of 90s death metal whilst retaining its own character. The overall effect is thoroughly claustrophobic, turning this into a fittingly nauseating centrepiece for the album, with its closing moments lurching into an eerie crawl that’s close to death doom.
Gorging Gastric Decedent follows up this sprawling monolith with a strong slab of death metal with energetic, punky drums and powerful hooks, with the vocals’ noxious growl matching up perfectly with the dark and cacophonous music that frames them and developing a cohesive and visceral sound that it’s very easy to get drawn in by. Ripened Psychosis continues in a similar vein, albeit with a demented approach to riffs that makes for a livelier, punishing take on the approach of the previous track, striking a solid balance between the crushing rhythmic undercurrent of many of this album’s heavier numbers and the sinister melodicism and savage, indecipherable vocals that have featured prominently throughout looming large here.
Veering between lean aggression and robust, slower sections, it’s arguably one of this record’s most eclectic efforts, once again opting for a longer form and being much more impactful for it. Where this song is perhaps this album at its most diverse, Secreted Effluence (Spilling) showcases CORPUS OFFAL at arguably their most adventurous and immersive, incorporating cleaner tones and far more abrasive elements that establish a noisier, atonal edge that add a murkier aspect to this song, transforming it from an effective piece of death metal to perhaps one of this records most powerful and ferocious outings, bringing proceedings to a close in a vitriolic and coarse manner.
Corpus Offal possesses all of the qualities that makes classic death metal such an enduring strain of extremity, from chaotic, feral aggression to meaty hooks and strident, gurgling vocals that lend a touch of goregrind to proceedings, but also crucially expands upon the musical template, making this distinct from many other albums in a very similar vein.
As well as the rabid flourishes and urgent, claustrophobic production, some of this album’s best work boasts hints of death doom, an influence that works particularly well when applied to the longer outings, turning them into monolithic juggernauts whilst peppering in plenty of discordance and angular musicianship, which ultimately makes these sprawling offerings so much more effective. CORPUS OFFAL have singularly managed to establish their core sound over the course of these seven tracks, and hopefully they continue producing slabs of death metal of this punishing and coarse magnitude, as they’ve hit on an intoxicating mix of style and tone here.
Rating: 8/10
Corpus Offal is out now via 20 Buck Spin.
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