Saturday 16 August 2014

Engorgement - Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations


I'm done with the day's football related TV. It's all well and good getting excited about the start of the Premier League season but it doesn't half lead to procrastination. That's probably why I've elected to review this happy bunch! Engorgement are from around the Hampshire/Suffolk area in Southern England and have been playing brutal, violence filled death metal since 2009. Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations was released in 2012 via US death-metal label Comatose Music, which was also the bands debut release.

Tracklist:-

1. Ejaculation Over Defiled Human Remains
2. Paraplegic Punch Bag
3. Cranial Devourment
4. Fornicating The Disfigured
5. Putrefying Colonic Irrigation
6. Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations
7. Full Body Prolapse

People who listen to brutal death will know that while the vocals don’t lend themselves too well to recorded formats, they manage to sound brilliant in a live setting alongside the slam that backs them up. I’ve certainly come to appreciate live death metal a lot more over the past few months. Engorgement are pretty damn heavy and while the aforementioned vocals sit high in the mix on Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations, they are backed up by some fast as hell bass-heavy grooves and beatdowns. 

The initial barrage of Ejaculation Over Defiled Human Remains and Paraplegic Punch Bag is pretty intense, with the latter giving plenty of cavernous guitar-led breakdowns. Cranial Devourment shows off Engorgement’s technical flair with load of time-signature changes and different guitar textures. When they slow down to a brief crawl mid-way through the song, they sound pretty epic!

Fornicating The Disfigured has the advantage of being both fast and long. I say it’s an advantage because by this point, you’ll be slamming down like nobodies business. Even the lack of obvious melody doesn’t hurt the record. I love the rhythms that kick off Putrefying Colonic Irrigation (sick title!). This is a brief number that shows a focused side to Engorgement’s song writing. It fits well after the five+ minutes of Fornicating…

The title-track seems to ratchet the pace up massively and is as heavy as this album gets. Album closer Full Body Prolapse has more variation in it, thanks to changing time-signatures and riffs. This album is intense whichever way you look at it, from the artwork to the musicianship, but props to Engorgement for keeping it focused. Too many bands elect for long albums, but Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations seven tracks will get spun on repeat.

There is no bandcamp page or stream for the band or label, but the full album is streaming on Youtube below:-



Someone needs to get this up on bandcamp for others too enjoy. I'll do it if needs be (with permission from the band and label of course!).

You can pick up CD copies from the band here - http://www.engorgement.bigcartel.com and from Comatose Music (if you're in the US) here - http://www.comatosemusic.com/store.

Engorgement Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Engorgement
Comatose Music Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Comatosemusiclabel

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