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Guttural Secrete: Nourishing the spoil
29/07/13 || The Duff
In watching the DVD studio footage of Defeated Sanity during the “Passages into Deformity” sessions, I noticed drummer and one of the band’s main writers sporting a Guttural Secrete top. SMN being of the know when it comes to brutal death metal, Guttural Secrete is a US band that is very much admired around them parts, and just as you would have it my luck they were releasing a new album this year and what better way to become acquainted.
So, in terms of ‘unknown’ brutal death metal bands I come across that have really hit the spot, namely Visceral Throne, Septycal Gorge, Decaying Purity for a small handful, Guttural Secrete are a muggy, predominantly tech death metal band the sludgy-Disgorge “Consume the Forsaken” way; they are a touch more measured than the San Diego legends, and have put a little more beef into their production values, but generally the music is dizzying highs and sludgy, groove-heavy slows.
The music is very similar to Visceral Throne, atmospherics reminding one of later era Gorguts and then what that morphed into with bands like Ulcerate, deceptively groove-laden riffs (to be fair, though, Visceral Throne adopt more of ye ol’ ‘Shuggah polyrhythmics, making them more striking to those less accustomed to BDM and in a sense more original), but altogether their style is denser, more suffocating, and actually, at the end of the day, more interesting and better arranged.
The more I listen to this disc, see, the more I think it to be one of the classics, where “Chapters of Repugnance” wowed me so much back in 2010. It has that flawlessness about its structure, even with the samples (the opening sample being one of the best intros I’ve come across – oh Jack Bauer, you naughty, naughty, sick and twisted man). Also to feature is a re-recording of “Coprophilic Asphyxia” that, having been written at least seven years ago, shows the band’s earlier stages; although still killer death metal, and not that much of a departure to what we have here, you can see where Guttural Secrete have morphed into a darker, deadlier, sharper and more complex beast with “Nourishing the Spoil”.
In many ways this reminds me of Putridity but with groove; there are bands with a knack for pinch harmonics, where to splatter them about an album almost incessantly, yet where their placement later is revealed as pure brilliance amidst the head-banging rhythms; also, Guttural Secrete have a thicker, less drum-heavy production, which means the guitars are easy enough to make out even through the most chaotic barrages of Michael Fitzgerald, whose performance certainly does not go undervalued here, but his skills are not presented to their utmost as with most extreme death metal bands of such an ilk.
I will not mention favourites, it is an album with no weak moments, enough crushing, memorable riffs and enough insanity to make it both a killer death metal and brutal death metal and then even on occasion a slam death metal record, atmospherics used to fill out the remainder (as well as some Atheist cleans, and some eerie black metal keys at the very end – this is a mixed bag of well-rounded goodness); needless to say insane musicianship, complex dynamics and a knowhow of tension and release.
I will say though that at the very end, the closing riff is pure melodic beauty, and comes at the listener out of nowhere to seal the deal in such a way so as to reveal the album’s many well put intricacies, that Guttural Secrete are not your common BDM outfit. Potentially brutal death metal album of the year for me, when Defeated Sanity and Wormed have delivered but failed to fully grasp the husks of me testes.
- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Brutal Bands
- Website: Guttural Secrete MySpace
- Band
- Michael Christian Fitzgerald: drums
- Jeremiah Blue Jensen: vocals, lyrics
- Randall James Thompson: guitars, bass
- Tracklist
- 01. Inhaling Corpulence
- 02. Stainless Conception
- 03. Serrated Impurities
- 04. Nourishing the Spoil
- 05. Deadened Prior to Coitus
- 06. Coprophilic Asphyxia
- 07. Truncation in Detail
- 08. Voyeuristic Engagement
- 09. Clotting the Vacant Stare
