I've sat here with a blank document open for like two hours because I just can't figure out where to fucking start with Wombripper, and I mean that in the best way. I want to devolve into some Navy Blue Vicar nonsense and blurt out SHREDDED FETII BELCHED FROM TSATHOGGUA or some shit to express what From the Depths of Flesh is to me. I have this niggling little hobgoblin in the back of my mind telling me to stay professional and talk about the riffs, the guitar tone, general tempo, song construction, vocals, et cetera but I just don't fucking care. From the Depths of Flesh sounds like POPEYE SQUEEZING A CAN OF ROLLERCOASTERS DOWN YOUR THROAT and that's all that really needs to be said! This is one of the most relentlessly intense albums I've heard all year and with every listen it becomes more and more obvious that this is one of the best damn things I've come across in 2018.
While Russia's death metal scene may be more immediately known for dumbass gurgleslam, Wombripper here takes a decidedly more Scandinavian approach to their craft, channeling the power-tool-shreddery of Entombed, Dismember, and Carnage, while drifting from Sweden by throwing in occasionally slower and more morbidly twisted sections reminiscent of Autopsy or Asphyx. The diversity in the back end is welcome because the album's sole flaw is simply that it's a bit too long if you're listening to the Redefining Darkness release (like I am). Twelve tracks at 45 minutes just gets to be tiring when it's this raw and frantic. The album could probably stand to shave off about three songs and ten minutes, and hey whaddaya know the original release is exactly that! So the album's one and only drawback is actually a later addition, as its virgin form omits the last three tracks, and as a result makes the album much more palatable and less of an endurance test. Keep in mind it's a pretty enjoyably brutal endurance test, but I'd much rather a band show up, kick ass, and then carry on with life than to overstay their welcome, even if "Morbid Aberration" is notable in that it seems to have cropped up on every prior release. The band must be mega proud of this one.
But with that out of the way, there's really nothing else to complain about. There's one tiny flaw that can be safely ignored and the rest of the album is THE OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM OF CHAINSAWS. Even after all of these listens I struggle to find songs to point out as particular highlights but it's because the entire damn album is so consistently reckless. "Godless Slaughter" and "Locked in Iced Coffin" stand out a bit for being more developed and containing those gruesome crawly slow parts, but the main attraction is just how fuckin EATEN BY AN ON FIRE SHARK the rest of the album is. From the opening notes your entire skeletal structure gets vaporized by a veritable onslaught of caustic riffery. This shit is fuckin' loud. It feels like my speakers can hardly keep up with the filthy mach-speed morbidity on display. The drumming sounds like an avalanche, the vocals sound like the logical midpoint between an extremely pissed off Yeti and Tom Waits in a coughing fit, everything is so distorted and manic that it doesn't sound like anything resembling a mistake or careless mastering. It's just vicious in every form. Pure, undiluted death metal malice with no frills to distract from the bludgeoning. Normally there wouldn't be any logical reason for this to stand out since it's just Swedeath worship at its core but ECHOING BOWELS AS MINOTAUR COMBUSTS.
I can't go on at length about From the Depths of Flesh because nonsense ejaculations of mad-lib gibberish is about all that my brain can comprehend after a few tracks. This is thunderous, pulverizing Grave-esque death metal with enough added zeal to shatter the skulls of anybody in earshot. I apologize for all the JAW-CAUGHT IN A PITCHING MACHINE stuff but when I'm faced with something that delivers so many Joe Frazier-style gut punches that my number two starts to resemble number one point three, that's all that makes sense. I'd say give "Locked in Iced Coffin" a shot for being one of the few to rein in the intensity a bit and focus on just damn strong mid-paced riffs, but really the first five or six tracks hit the hardest with their boundless ferocity so choose the form of your destructor really.
RATING: 91%
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