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Jasad: Witness of perfect torture
09/02/12 || BamaHammer
Thanks to Lou’s excellent stub of their latest demo, I decided Jasad was a band worth looking into, and I’m really happy that I did. I decided to check things out from the beginning and their 2001 debut “Witness of penis torture.” From the very first moment I heard the full band band kick in (after a few seconds of intro noise which possibly includes the vocalist burping or growling, I can’t decide), it became all too apparent what was in store for me.
Hide yo’ kids. Hide yo’ wife. Jasad doesn’t fuck around.
When Jasad say they play death metal of the brutal variety, they mean it in the utmost sense. This is one of the rawest, most brutal albums I’ve ever heard. Jasad is one of the most relentless bands out there, and they are certainly deserving of your attention if you enjoy the finest brutal death metal this world has to offer. After my recent discovery of Japan’s Defiled and now Jasad, from Indonesia, I can honestly say the East Asian brutal death metal scene is alive and well, as well as criminally underrated, and has been for more than a decade. Glad I finally discovered it for myself.
The guitar sound is absolutely massive. There is enough gain on the tone to kill a small child at close range, and there is hardly any midrange to speak of. The tone completely scooped with loads of bass and just enough treble to give it a good fuzzy sizzle, and it sort of reminds me of the guitar sound from Sinister’s “Hate” album, which is a very good thing. The millions and millions of chugging palm-mutes over the course of this album sound absolutely amazing because of the whole enormity of the sound.
In addition to that huge guitar sound, the bass is underneath it all adding even more guts to the music. It never ventures out of the ordinary or does anything technically profound, but it’s definitely noticeable, following riffs and supporting the music. The resulting mix of the two instruments is a killer conglomeration of ballsy, bass-heavy riffs that groove and chug along powerfully for the entirety of the album. Some parts of the album even tend to rattle the smallest of speakers because of the huge bottom end, but to me it just sounds viciously terrific.
Despite having what is, in my opinion, an incredible guitar sound, the drums leave a lot to be desired. I mentioned the production is very raw, and this is most apparent in the drums. The most noticeable characteristic is the high pitched, “pingy” snare sound. It’s nowhere near the “St. Anger” level of bad, but it did bring that debacle of an album to mind. The performance is fine. I’d perhaps even call it damn excellent, but that fucken snare sound is always teetering on the verge of being annoying, especially considering the multitude of blastbeats here. It just always sounds so tight that it could pop at any given moment. Ultimately, I think that the snare is tolerable only because of how raw everything sounds as a whole, and it actually works some of the time.
Vocally, Man (That’s his name, I guess.) turns in one of the most insanely guttural and completely indecipherable performances I’ve ever heard. I can’t understand a single word of his growling. Not one. He even forays into flavors like “pig squeal,” “jungle cat burp,” or “pinching a giant shit” on occasion. Despite the vocals being generally gibberish, his variation of styles is undoubtedly interesting, with traditional Sundanese puppetry cited as an inspiration for some of the assorted tones. The result, however, is that the lack of any clarity inhibits some parts of the album from being as catchy as they probably could and should be. Say what you want, but something as simple as good enunciation can make even the most brutal death metal chorus catchy. Still, the overall vocal sounds are just way too cool.
As crazy as it sounds, though, the vocals fit the rest of the music extremely well, and serve more as just another rhythmic device as opposed to a method to transmit lyrical content. I have no idea what those lyrics may be anyway. There are none listed in the booklet or online or anything, but judging from the song titles, I bet they’re about gore. Or not in English. Or about defiling their record label (Check out the title of the third track and compare it with the label name. What could that possibly be about?).
In the end, I think this album is worth more than just a few listens (hell, it’s not even 24 minutes long, but there’s a version out there with bonus tracks if you want them). There’s enough groovy brutality and just flat-out interesting sounds here to keep you happy for a while. Jasad can create some pretty awesome brutal death metal, and they’re definitely a band I’ll keep up with from now on.
- Information
- Released: 2001
- Label: Rottrevore
- Website: Jasad MySpace
- Band
- Ferly: guitars
- Man: vocals
- Joel: bass
- Dani: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Diamation
- 02. Ripping the pregnant
- 03. Ejaculate on rottrevore
- 04. The Amelia’s revenge
- 05. Urine campur nanah
- 06. Belati berkarat
- 07. Witness of perfect torture
