I love it when bands don’t take themselves too seriously. When one gets past the comedy of the cover art which is so over the top it is the only possible reaction, one realises the first song is titled “Worthless Intro You Will Skip”. It is not long before one sees that what we actually have here is a parody death metal band, in a similar fashion to Cannabis Corpse. Andrew Sutton (Visceral Throne) provided all the music and Jacob McBride the vocals when they started the band in 2013, but fast forward to 2020 and it is now a trio of drummer Mike Simon (Blasterbation, Cerebral Engorgement, Splattered) and bassist Nick Scott (Aegaeon, And Hell Followed With) with Sutton now providing guitars and vocals (McBride left in 2019).
This is not music to take seriously, but yet at the same time it is. Track six starts with some very recognisable percussion, but before anyone is able to ask why there is a Toto cover song on the album it morphs into “I Bless The Slams Down In Africa” which is something quite different indeed. Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to catch Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias in concert. They were a comedy rock band, whose most famous song is probably their pisstake of Status Quo with “Heads Down No Nonsense Mindless Boogie”. What made them so good at what they did was not only were they all strong musicians, but they totally understood the genres they were parodying and that is exactly the same here. Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy know what makes brutal death metal work, and although it is hard to growl with your tongue in your cheek here they are ticking all the boxes and leaving the listener to wonder who is having the last laugh, the audience or the band? This is strong stuff, and fans of the likes of Devourment, Party Canon, Guttural Secrete and Disgorge may well find a lot in this.
7/10 Kev Rowland
