DEMO REVIEW: Anthropophagous – Spoiled Marrow

After a tape release via Headsplit Records back in October, Blood Harvest Records are bringing this demo back with a 7″ vinyl release on March 13th. I am talking of course about the debut demo of Death Metal putridity from ANTHROPOPHAGOUS.

Thundering riffs, blastbeats and piercing leads lay waste for a slew of guttural vocals with chaotic upbeat grooves ensuing. This forceful Death Metal pungency immediately makes a solid impact with its primitively brilliant attack of meaty and nasty swirling grotesqueries that leave a thick oozy ichor of doom-tinged morbidity with truly excellent riff-writing and hard-hitting drum patterns to back them up. The use of inhumanly spectral lead work adds to the atmospheric and melodic sides of the music while never taking an ounce away from the sickening blend of twisted brutality that these guys offer with a rhythmically caustic and rupturing amount of bellowing grooves. With early Finnish material in the likes of Sentenced, Convulse and Demilich clearly playing a strong influence on this, there is also elements of more modern acts like Undergang bringing a swinging beat to the snappy blows of pure Death Metal obliteration. The cutting bass tone is really allowed to break through on its own in the second track which adds so much low end snarl to the short record, diversifying it while keeping on track to deliver a stirringly vile demo. The vocals are not unlike those of David Mikkelsen from the aforementioned Undergang (and many other killer bands) which is a style I adore, combining most subgenera of Death Metal, beautifully so with such a solid and unrelenting instrumental backing. The latter half of the demo continues to blundering stomp through high-impact grooves and macabre domains of pure filth, wasting not a second on anything but total Death Metal violence and cutting-edge groove. Utterly disgusting material from the band, hopefully a beginning to a successful career in making swampy and cavernous Death Metal extremities as I certainly have not heard enough, but this gut-drenched demo certainly has piqued my interest. -8/10