Slam Showcase: Extermination Dismemberment, Coprocephalic, Acranius, Leprous Divinity
If you thought Sarge was the only one on MS who could slam, you’re dead wrong. I too appreciate the tooth-shattering pummel of trash can percussion and toilet bowl vocals, and we know lots of you readers do as well. Slam and brutal death metal have started to get a little classier of late, moving from the sewers all the way up to the gutters, but don’t think that these new-school bands have gone soft on the old traditions. An explosion of technical and stylistic progress has added depth that the music never before reached, and it’s high time that MS started adequately covering this br00talest of br00ts. Below, I’ve compiled a selection of the finest new slams that have recently slum their way into my ear canals.
You shouldn’t look to Belarus’s Extermination Dismemberment for risks. You should look to them for putrid gutturals, relentless (no, really) bass drops, and slamming siqqness – they’re likely the only band here whose snare might garner Sarge’s approval. Though their name’s awkwardly translated, that doesn’t carry over to their approach: Extermination Dismemberment are as commanding as a Drivers’ Ed safety-scare flick and as delicate as a Russian surgeon. Serial Urbicide is straight pit riffage, zombie-slasher LiveLeak gore in musical form. The band manage to avoid pulping their riffs into flattened redundancy, so this stuff never stops being entertaining. You could eat popcorn to ED, as long as it’s garnished with a steaming pile of entrails.
Though they might not be the first international slam project, US/Taiwan-based Coprocephalic (read: shit-headed) are one of the most intriguing acts I’ve heard in months. 2013’s Gluttonous Chunks was a gorgeous conflation of tech with brutality, and their forthcoming full-length The Oath of Relinquishment promises to deliver some of the nastiest riffage on any side of the planet. Coprocephalic craft atmospheres that few of their contemporaries match, manipulating density via chords and samples rather than merely floating minor seconds over a breakdown. This is technical music, no question, with 0rgasmically arpeggiated weedly-weedlies filling in the gaps between abyssal gutturals. In anticipation of their upcoming full-length, the band have dropped an EP containing new tracks with vocal features from Angel Ochoa (Disgorge USA), Matti Way (Pathology), and Blue Jensen (Guttural Secrete), whose endorsements should be more than enough to make your lower half engorge with anticipatory pus.
Considering the way that slam’s songwriting and production have been improving, the development of brutal deathcore as a midway point between slam and brutal death metal was only a matter of time. Deathcore has always been a bit of an American thing, but Germany’s Acranius stand head and shoulders above American and European artists alike. Some slam can get a little sluggish, but Acranius know how to move fucking FAST. When Mutation Becomes Homicidal pairs shamelessly catchy breakdowns with vocals that’ll make you vomit out your own skull, all at beatdown pace. I’d fear for my internal organs if I ever got the chance to see Acranius live. Plus, nuclear bears. Goddamn. You can stream/purchase When Mutation Becomes Homicidal on Bandcamp.
Leprous Divinity take a more Pathology-esque approach, blending slams with brutal death bludgeoning and tight, clean production. The band possess a Katalepsyan adoration for pinch harmonics and an equally developed love for dramatic opening samples. Leprous are not your go-to for haphazard, chaotic gutter slam. They’ve got something approximating traditional song structures, executed with a technical diligence that belies slam’s traditional lack of articulatory skill. Leprous Divinity tackle brutality from a sharp, precise angle instead of a blunt, muddy one, and whatever ferocity they may lose in spontaneity is made up for in calculated percussive impact. The songs are simple, and the compositions are tight – probably due to the fact that guitarist Cameron Almasi and studio vocalist Josh Miller are ex-members of Flesh Consumed and Son of Aurelius respectively. The band’s debut EP Enslavement is available for free streaming/download on bandcamp.
