ALBUM REVIEW: Engrossed In Decay – Molder

Death metal is meant to leave you feeling a bit queasy isn’t it? Blood, guts, mucus, pus – you can stick all the progressive elements or ambitious concepts on it you like but sometimes you just can’t beat getting back to the genre’s nastiest and most knuckle-dragging basics. If you find yourself nodding in agreement then you won’t need much convincing to check out Engrossed In Decay. The sophomore full-length from Illinois’ MOLDER, it emerges this Friday caked in all the OSDM essentials one could ask for. Just make sure you have some bleach to hand.

Now, obviously MOLDER haven’t reinvented the wheel here; that’s not the point at all. Instead, they’ve loaded up several truck-loads of old-school horror movies, all their MORTICIAN records, and whatever it is that’s been making their bedrooms smell and driven the gleefully putrid results into the closest festering swamp they could find. This is music meant to churn to stomachs; it’s not clever and it’s been done plenty before, but lay that aside and there’s a lot of fun to be had here – you know, in that gross, smelly kind of way that absolutely lives up to a lot of the unfair stereotypes we metalheads spend most of our time trying to deny. Sorry mum!

Getting into the record itself, Engrossed In Decay kind of just spews forth as a single fetid mass. Ten tracks of swampy riffs, bursts of thrash, and an occasional hardcore barkiness, you’ll find no complaints here. Opener Glutinous Remains is a mid-tempo, headbanging monster, its lyrics painting a grim picture of “liquefied decay” that matches up pretty well to the album’s artwork. The title track follows suit, this one balancing more swampy riffing with a welcome D-beat driven energy lift. It’s all just solid, swiftly establishing a blueprint from which the band refuse to deviate across 44 minutes.

As you might expect then, Engrossed In Decay soon becomes somewhat formulaic. It’s clear MOLDER aren’t afraid to spend their time on a riff or idea, opening pretty much every track with a lengthy instrumental jam before any vocals come in. It works quite well for a while at least; each comes with a headbanging guarantee, and the guitars themselves have that wonderfully thick buzzsaw bite to them. As time goes on however it does feel like the album starts crying out for just a touch of variation; maybe a full-throttle rager, or a totally crushing doomy one, for example, but neither of these are forthcoming. Again, that’s not really the point, but a little trim could definitely go a long way here.

Ultimately though, MOLDER pick their target and hammer and bludgeon away at it until there’s nothing left but blood and pulverised bone. Perhaps not the most ambitious mission, but mission accomplished nevertheless. Run yourself a bath – for after, not during – and get ready to embrace the decay. It will come for every one of us after all.

Rating: 7/10

Engrossed In Decay is set for release on July 15th via Prosthetic Records.

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