ALBUM REVIEW: Duck Face Killings – Fulci
Famed Italian film director Lucio Fulci had a famed career in cinema, and while he tackled a number of genres it was through Italian giallo and horror movies that he made his most famous works. Films like City Of The Living Dead, The Beyond, House By The Cemetery and Zombi 2 are all considered classics, are must watch movies and cemented Fulci‘s name in horror movie lore. His films were not for the faint of heart and the over the top violence and gore laden shocks delighted fans of horror the world over. Fast forward a few decades and fellow Italians and death metal maniacs FulcI erupted with their musical homage to their namesake director with every album they have created being based on a film by Lucio Fulci and the results have been breathtakingly brutal.
The band have made some of the most vicious sounding metal in recent years, and their love of the bloodthirsty tales of FUlCI‘s horror are once again unleashed on their latest album Duck Face Killings.
This album is FULCI‘s metal interpretation of the movie The New York Ripper, (with the title of the album referring to the villain of the film and their menacing trademark duck call and acts as the intro to album track Rotten Apple) and the album sounds as nasty, sadistic and homicidal as its cinematic inspiration in the best possible way, revelling in the sinister grit and grime of its celluloid counterpart and in turn, creating some of the most fearsome death metal on the planet.
Kicking off with the track Vile Butchery, and a sample of dialogue from the film, that ends by stating “But overall, it was good, efficient butchery”, and this soundbite sums up the entire offering in the most perfect fashion and as soon as it ends, FULCI‘s horrific death metal, stylised by its heaviness and also its grooving nature, takes over in the most venomous fashion.
The genius that FULCI have in what they do is evident on the following A Blade In The Dark, and latter track Lo Squartatore, and these reflect the original grimey nature of the New York City portrayed in the film. The sound transitions away from death metal into menacing electronic and cinematic flourishes which amplify the threat of danger in sonic form. Although this does offer a respite to the unrelenting brutality, it also contributes nicely to the atmosphere, something that is littered throughout Duck Face Killings‘ runtime.
The brutality returns with a vengeance though and songs like the deathly grooves of Fucked With A Broken Bottle, Morbid Lust and Sadistic Murder, tracks which add a squalid feel to proceedings and again pay tribute to the nasty nature of the film. And when you add in the prime death metal of songs like Maniac Unleashed and Stabbed, Gutted And Loved, you have a recipe for the most venomous music there is.
With guest appearances from Wood from SKINLESS on Human Scalp Condition and even more interestingly Lord Goat (aka Goretex) from NY underground hip hop legends NON PHIXION, who adds his vicious raps to Knife, lends that gritty New York vibe perfectly over the music, helping give an even more diverse feel. As the album ends in a calmer note with Il miele del diavolo, a nod to another Fulci movie, you have time to catch your breath from the constant horror that preceded it.
FULCI have definitely done it again with Duck Face Killings, both as a platter of supreme death metal but also in the way that they perfectly reflect the cinematic horror of The New York Ripper in audio form. With the band fully embracing the grime and horror of the movie, this is the perfect audio companion.
Rating: 9/10
Duck Face Killings is out now via 20 Buck Spin.
Like FULCI on Facebook.