ALBUM REVIEW: Oozing Radioactive Vomition – Cryptworm

December 11, 2023November 29, 2023 Ellis Heasley

Oh good, just in time for Christmas! Oozing Radioactive Vomition is the sophomore album and relatively swift follow-up to CRYPTWORM’s debut full-length Spewing Mephitic Putridity from March last year. There have been a few changes in the Bristol-based death metallers’ camp in the time between records but the intention here remains one and the same, i.e. making death metal as putrid and ugly and festering as possible and then forcing it down your throat one maggot-filled mouthful after another. Mince pie, anyone?

At this point CRYPTWORM’s sole mainstay is guitarist and vocalist Tibor Hanyi and it is worth acknowledging right off the bat that his ultra-guttural delivery will be an immediate sticking point for some. If you can’t handle the vocals on those early CARCASS records, or indeed those of the band’s most obvious influence in DEMILICH, then this isn’t for you. It’s also probably not the easiest place to start if you’re just looking to get into the genre – unless that’s an aspect you are specifically drawn to of course – but even with those qualifiers there will still be a sizable portion of death metal fans who no doubt absolutely adore the references mentioned and will therefore have a great time here too.

As if track titles like Miasmatic Foetid Odour and Engulfed By Gurgling Purge Fluids weren’t dead giveaways, there is some serious stench on this record. Hanyi is just really good at riffs basically, his work angular and hypnotic and jagged and often even quite technical, but always with a crucial sense of groove that insists on the steady banging of heads and the scrunching of faces in approval. The opening title track guarantees this response from the outset, and it remains just as true of all six on Oozing Radioactive Vomition, each track invariably permitted to push past the five and even six-minute marks so as to really get its hooks in you.

One of the best is fourth track Necrophagous (Postmortal Devourment), its collection of grooves somehow levelling up even on the high standard that the band deliver so consistently across the entire record. Here and indeed throughout, the anchor is provided by the band’s new rhythm section of bassist Joss Farrington and drummer Jamie Wintle, the latter also making sure to punctuate proceedings with sporadic blast beats and the occasional acceleration into something a little punkier that gives the album just enough to beat any allegations of it being completely one note.

Really though, Oozing Radioactive Vomition never veers wildly off course, but it also doesn’t hang around too long and as long as you have already developed at least some appetite for this particularly pungent form of death metal you should have a lot of fun while it’s on. If you’re bored of Mariah and Bublé and all the other insufferable nonsense we are compelled to spend this time of year listening to then maybe you should sneak Submerged Into Vile Repugnance into your Christmas playlist – if nothing else you’ll probably have less competition at the cheese board.

Rating: 7/10