ALBUM REVIEW: Cerebral Rot – Odious Descent Into Decay

Here I review the upcoming debut full length from CEREBRAL ROT, set for release via 20 Buck Spin on August 16th. Some festering putridity lies ahead, taking us to the promised land of the grotesque. This should make for a nice follow up to reviewing the new album of their label mates WITCH VOMIT yesterday.

Drawing in on glorious ambience and foreboding acoustic guitar, the atmospheric side of the album was present much faster than I anticipated with a really darkened feel to things, churning doomy guitars soon grind in with pummelling drums, building on the harsh tension yet tranquility of the introduction. The chugging and pounding build up in the first song really sets up the album nicely before bellowed vocals drop us into festering crawls through a primordial sludge of Death Metal ecstasy, using primitive formula to offer up a stripped back conjuration of putridity. Their ability to mix grotesque doomy grooves with some heavyweight punches that hit damn hard is flawless with smooth transcendence between the unrelenting sections. I really think it adds to the experience the way the vocals are somewhat sparse for Death Metal, giving the instrumentals plenty of power to back up the vomited verses. Much like the WITCH VOMIT album there is an unholy amount of catchy, breakneck grooves that keep you enticed with the monolithic flow, broken up occasionally by interluding and blistering guitar leads / whammy bar abuse. Something I am finding brings the brutality up a notch that a lot of current underground Death Metal bands are doing is the use of occasional breaks with just bass punching through before resuming an onslaught of decimating heaviness, thankfully present on this masterfully odious record. While there is a filthy production to the album, the clarity on the more mid-tempo sections give some tight BOLT THROWER vibes to the otherwise more convulsive hammering of morbid atrocities. Following the putridity of new albums on 20 Buck Spin from the likes of FETID and TOMB MOLD, these guys had some grisly releases to follow, not an enviable task but god-damn this album rips you a new one with just as much force as the aforementioned bands. Plenty of caveman riffing, vocal putridity and stomping drums but mixed with some more intelligently utilised songwriting to craft a gorgeously dismal atmospheric side. This cavernous cacophony of depraved Death Metal ferocity and utterly revolting soundscapes certainly is an “Odious Descent Into Decay” filled with monstrously heavy grooving rhythms that leave you defiled by yet another phenomenal release. Hauntingly brutal, memorable and devastatingly repugnant, this album needs to be heard by fans of any other bands I mentioned in this review alongside any fans of real Death Metal. A sensual blend of putridly old school Death Metal and intimidatingly cavernous Death-Doom, blended to near-perfection. -9/10