February | 2016 | Sonic Recapitulation

unnamed With a name like Chestburster, you’d expect something horrific lurking beneath the surface, ready to explode to life and bring forth something totally terrifying and impossible to grasp the reality of and this three piece may just be that. With a few EP’s under their belt already, the trio from Kouvola, Finland are set to unleash their debut offering, titled “Slime And Guilt”. With a name like that, you have to wonder just how filthy this album really is.

Wonder no more, as the opening bars of “Faces In The Rain” reveal all you need to know. With a real sludgy feel with doom-like atmosphere backing it up, it’s unsettling and evil, just the way we like it. Initially steady paced, it really hits in for the verse, delivered hard, fast and rather loosely, there is a real punk vibe to it, hidden under all that grimy sludge harshness coating it. Despite being rough around the edges, both instrumentally and vocally in terms of the delivery, there are subtle lines of melody buried within the layers and when you pick up on them, they are rather good. Delving into Black Metal territory slightly round the break with a real frantic paced delivery with huge sounding chords played at a blistering pace, the song just jumps from varying levels of intensity on a whim, keeping you on your toes, especially towards the end with its screamed vocals and sinister sounding lead guitar section for a chaotic end.

“Experienced Virgin” has more of a real raw stoner feel to it, oozing with copious amounts of sleaze and dirt. With a raw tone and slightly ‘off-beat- feel, the hazy vocals have a slight hypnotic effect to them. There’s plenty of nifty little blues licks across the track, all of them packed with plenty of flair and character but as you’d expect, Chestburster don’t do things normally. Speeding proceedings up, it gets more chaotic and all of a sudden, there is a lot more happening – wild drums, fast paced bass and guitar and harsh vocals all lead to a real solid sounding solo soaked in a fantastic wah-rich tone to round it all off. Title track “Slime And Guilt” switches it up again, this time rolling back the years to a real hard and loose late 70’s styled punk sound. With the raw and loose feel about it, combined with the hazy vocals, it really captures the essence of the album so far, that being it is wild, uncoordinated and frantic with no real flow to it whatsoever.

“Gas Station Pilgrim” keeps this lack of flow going, changing it up again and bringing a near 10 minute epic to the party. Its real slow blues feel works like a charm, allowing for some great atmospheric build up without much intensity to it. When the verse finally lands, the bass is stupidly heavy and those hazy vocals return yet again along with small flashes of intensity to the sound. With the chorus, it gets more prominent, having a ‘bigger sound’ to it and you kind of get the feeling this is like a slow burning fuse, just waiting to explode to life but as it goes on, through some real hook laden riffs and plenty of ominous vibes given off, there isn’t that explosion which is so brilliantly teased. It does get heavier towards the end after the massive solo section but the only explosion is the expressive lead to cap this epic length track off.

From here on out, things begin to settle in to some kind of flow. “The Arm Stretches Out”, “Rojo Sangre” And “Licking Letters” all have real prominent feelings of stoner-doom groove to them. Packed with riffs which in some cases are tributes to the Godfather of riffs himself, Iommi, and others which are more hook laden and infectious in nature, this trio of songs gets some good momentum and continuity building and shows just what the band is capable of when they settle on one direction. There are flashes of the chaos which ran through the opening tracks, it wouldn’t really be Chestburster without those, but it is a welcome change to have a block of tracks which work well with each other.

This of course changes for the final two tracks. “Tame” is more doom friendly than stoner/groove and the sinister sounding guitar and bass intro really sets up the massive Sabbath styled riffs perfectly, but from here, it is anything but tame. Picking up the pace significantly for the verse, it goes flat out before slowing down again, repeating this pattern to the end of the track. Each section has some great pounding riffs (Slow) and some reall hook laden instrumental sections and slick lead line deliveries, but after the continuity of the previous tracks, it just feels a little off. “Ice Age Inside My Head” is the closing number and this brings back the groove feel. With a solid pace, some great melodic hooks to the riffs and some good energy in it, the track brings the band back to doing what they do best . More accessible than most of the album, its an enjoyable track to listen to with its straight to the point rock and roll vibe coated in a thick stoner styled delivery and the guitar work is magnificent, oozing class be it in the lead sections or the riffs.

In all, “Slime And Guilt” is an album of two parts, the opening part in my mind being the weaker of the two. If you can get past the first four tracks, you have a remaining 5 which are great slices of groove laden doom which would make the perfect soundtrack for some high and good times. It is an album which does get better as it goes on, but given how different the two parts of this release are, its a case of persevering and dealing with the dynamic and entropic qualities of the first half.

Still, it’s not bad, it’s just not for everyone.

(6.5/10 Fraggle)

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When a tour like this rolls round, you’d be foolish not to grab a ticket and get along to it. Two of Death Metal’s most titanic bands in the past decade or so along with another Symphonic Mediterranean based Death Metal band in a small venue which has great acoustics and is easily accessible is a night you do not want to miss out on and the fact that Aborted were on the bill sealed the deal for me.

My first encounter with Aborted and Kataklysm was back in 2007 when they played Damnation Festival 2007 up in Leeds and needless to say, it was fantastic! Since then, I have always tried to catch Aborted whenever I can and it seems like when they are in town, Kataklysm aren’t usually far behind or they play the following year.

Getting to the venue for doors at 6:30, the first stop was the merch table manned by Sven, the charismatic and commanding frontman for Aborted and after forking over some of my cash for a new shirt and then hitting the bar for Red Stripe, I was all set. I was still amazed with the fact that they were the opening act (personally, I saw them as a headliner but ah well!) but when the opening music from the film “Hellraiser” was used for their walk out, a quick look around the venue, seeing it fairly packed out for the opening act, all that went out the window – only brutality mattered.

And brutal it was. The grindcore tainted death metal slammed into you like a jackhammer and didn’t stop. Pummeling with harsh vocals, blasting drums and intense guitar and bass, everything was spot on as you would expect from the long standing five piece. Recent works such as Necrotic Manifesto and Termination Redux went down a storm with the crowd, as did the relentless onslaught of brutal riffery and sublime lead work but the most well received part was the talk of a new album either coming in April, or work beginning on it in April. Either way, I am eagerly anticipating this.

Up next after a brief changeover were Greece’s Septic Flesh. Greece has a rich history for extreme metal bands, the most notable riding the wave of interest being Rotting Christ and a lot of people were eagerly anticipating this act.

Opening up their set, you could tell the symphonic element was a key component to their sound as it really augmented the death metal beneath it. With a grand feel about them and a decent tone too, they delivered the goods. I don’t know much about them so I cannot really say which tracks went down a storm and so on, but the crowd loved it. Interacting well with the crowd, the frontman had a good stage presence and the music was filled with blasts and solid death metal grooves under the dramatic and sinister symphonic overtures, the latter of which I found enjoyable and found myself wondering if a venue with better suited acoustics to this kind of music would make them sound phenomenal. Their final song, “Prometheus” really sparked the crowd after the dedication to the bands and those in attendance and it did have a real epic feel to it and maybe it may be worth investigating this group more, but to me, as good as they were in the live setting, they didn’t sit right on the bill for me and personally, I feel they should have opened.

With those down and more booze in me, it was time for the headliners. Kataklysm, hailing from the United States of Canada (according to Septic Flesh’s frontman) are a band who really need no introduction.

From the off, the solid groove driven brutal death metal hit hard and didn’t relent in the slightest. Tight and precise, it was excellently delivered and the band the majority of those in attendance were there to see were received as expected. Breaching the Asylum opened the proceedings and from there, it just rolled through. With tracks spanning their discography for the most part, there wasn’t a song which wasn’t happily lapped up. Rarely played Open Scar’s went down a storm whilst crowd favorite Crippled and Broken tore the place a new one setting up an encore of Iron Will and Elevate to round off a storming live performance.

By the end of the night I was a bit bruised but not as crippled and broken as I would have expected to be, but one can only put that down to Aborted opening the show and not closing it!

The ‘Of Ghosts And Gods Tour’ is one of those special tours which comes by every now and then and it is well worth trying to catch it, after all, where else can you find three of the most in form Death Metal bands of the moment on the same bill? Symphonic, Groove, pounding, brutal… It was an enjoyable night for all who went!

(Fraggle)