ALBUM REVIEW: Mutilate – Contagium

Here I review the highly anticipated second album of Blackened Death Metal mob MUTILATE, out now via Iron Bonehead Productions. This record promises extremity, filth and total insanity, not for the weak!

1. Vile And Disgusting drops in with crawling tremolo picked riffs and chiming cymbal hits, an old school and filthy soundscape of totally hellish proportions is immediately created. Thunderously grooving into more intense, higher tempo chaos, the band slam out filthy and intrusive concoctions of sleazy and raw putridity. Delightfully unhinging guitar riffs, primitive drum work and macabre vocals make for a truly entertaining opening song filled with action-packed assaults. There is some really tight lead guitar work to balance the morbidity nicely. Excellent.
2. Quartered booms in with cascading gore-soaked riffs and chasms of bass before the blasting drums fire us into upbeat grooves of totally oozing and sleaze-laden verses. The sound of the band is impressively dirty with a raw production mixing the primal instrumentation and snarling maniacal vocals into a vitriolic, barbaric death waltz. There is melody within the song but it actually adds to the crushing savagery of the piece very well. There is a catchy punky vibe in the song that made it quite anthemic and the ending was absolutely gross. Glorious.
3. No Faith sets off with barrages of ferocious guitars and drums with some soaring leads before the main rhythms of the song take over for more morbidly crawling grooves and blastbeats that have such a naturally primal and nasty sound that you cannot help but be intrigued by them. The whiplash headbanging pace of the upbeat piece if infectious, as are the cascading guitar riffs and torturously grim bass sounds that cut beautifully through the hammering drums and malignant snarls. Brilliant.
4. Eyes Of A Child falls into rank with some nicely brooding guitars and punchy drums, leaving room for some morbidity on the vocals to add to the rather fun pace of the song which breaks into cavernous, almost doomy, riffing briefly before the main chugging attack continues. There is a real flesh-tearing sound in the vocals that becomes more blood-curdling as the fiercely pumping instrumentals and doomy breaks drive out more and more macabre, gruesomeness. Haunting leads, slow tempo riffs and punctual drums make for some gorgeously atmospheric sections that were totally unexpected but most welcome. It turns out the band can do Death-Doom very well too! Fantastic.
5. Falling Into Darkness brings the tremolo riffing and blasts back but at a quite slow crawl that is unnerving and filled with such an odiously malignant vibe that grows like a tumour with its disgusting Death Metal secretions becoming more obnoxiously fun and brutal with each passing bar before we are thrown into total grinding mayhem with such a gorgeously old school feel to everything in the instruments, vocals and production that it is immediately loveable. Another boisterous and bombastic piece of brilliance.
6. Black Fate thrashes into fruition with a short sample and ripping guitar work over upbeat, unrelenting snare pummels that altogether builds nicely into cavernously doomy riffing that was once more very unexpected, giving the album a volatility but also some atmospherics. Chugging fiercely, the more aggressive assaults come back with upbeat swings that ooze mayhem and demand for total chaos with an anthemic and fun song, perfectly balanced by faster parts to fuel the mosh. Utterly vile, great stuff.
7. Decapitator churns out macabre riffs standing alone before the barrages of drum attack fill in the void with a death-march of furious musicianship that remains simplistic with morbid chanted growls taking the foreground and some nice drum madness breaking out among the oozing guitar tremolo picking. Overall the swinging pace of the song makes for a perfect blitz of sleazy old school sounds and has some nice punky attitude to it too. A really cool piece with a quite unique feeling among the album that works really well.
8. Skeletal Haunting forcefully fires in with high octane and morbidly torturing instrumentals which just melt all flesh with a macabre old school groove very strongly present. Some solo bass work brought even more crustiness to the table before thrashing through more waves of totally barbaric and gnarly conjurations of pure death, chaos and horror. Intense, brooding and violent, this song is a prime example of the most raw and honest Death Metal spirit with a really catchy yet simple main riff but also some some soulful lead work. The ending has some absolutely huge riff work with a “Swedeath” groove to it that was damn cool. Astounding.
9. Contagium is the final track of the album and I genuinely have no idea how they are going to wind down the momentum of this monstrously filthy music. Setting things off with a Sci-Fi sample sound and huge cavernous guitar chords that build into a nicely paced groove and chanted snarls, the song feels like a real signature piece for the band, which fits it being the albums title track. Acid Witch seems to be an influence on this song with its grotesquerie fuelled sounds pulsating along at a consistent and catchy rhythm. An awesome closing number filled with a nicely withdrawn aggression but ever-present morbid groove.

I think the term filth is used a lot by Death Metal fans, but rarely is it as suitable as it is with this album. Totally primitive, hellishly brutal and fantastically charged with odious layers of repugnant soundscapes for fans of the truest extremity. While I think many may be discouraged by the raw and abrasive style of the band, I feel that is intentional and this is the perfect release for fans of more niche Death Metal barbarity. -8/10