Apoch's Metal Review - Putrified: Neurotic Necrotic CD Review

Discography	Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed.
Full-Length(s):	Spawn of the Dead (2011) • Neurotic Necrotic (2012)
EP(s):	Whorehouse Tales (2011)
Demo(s):	The Return of Swedish Old-School Death Metal (2010)

Review

Putrified return to the studio once more shortly after their debut full-length offering Spawn of the Dead and a follow-up digital EP. But this time around, things are a little different. Dubbed the name Neurotic Necrotic, this follow-up album finds a home with Hellthrasher Productions, holds thirteen tracks, and roughly clocks in at a respectable thirty-four minutes. According to the press release, this isn't just the average gore filled release like their debut, and is actually a conceptual piece.

According to band member A. Death, the concept is "loosely based on the HP Lovecraft stories Herbert West - Reanimator and Under the Pyramids." He goes on in the press release to explain it is of a man who starts hearing voices, but no physical bodies to accompany them, and he can't get them to stop. In an attempt to get them to, he starts injecting the dead with fluids to reanimate them, causing them to walk and make their way home to the land of the pharos. This sounds like a promising concept for the album, taking it far from just being a generic zombie tale and delving into the Lovecraftian story telling concepts to mesh with a brutal, raw Swedish Death Metal aggression.

The lower production nicely suits the dark concept of the album, having the music a little further in the back with a muddy sound that takes the guitars and their heavy distortion back to the early days of Death Metal. The vile riffs are met with equally vile sounding guttural performances, coming through more of a mid-level performance with an echo effect that is a little louder than the music is. The bass supports the guitars well and can often be heard, especially during some of the slower, dismal moments of the music, but overall it's the bass kicks that really come through thanks to the deeper, muffled thud that seems as loud as the vocals here. The snares sound thick and present an additional thud range to the music that does end up overpowering things at times, and really this can be the roughest part of Neurotic Necrotic to deal with, but it's far from bad or hindering to the release. The cymbals also come through nicely, though again they feel more in the background, and the impact they make it ok for the rawer audio quality here. It can also give the music a very eighties b-movie kind of sound too. IN the case of "The Land of the Pharoes," there are some additional instruments added that do give off a slight culture-driven sound to back up the Egyptian focus of the song and it's lyrics, but at the same time it feels like there's a little hint of melody thrown into the mix. This isn't enough to give the song a Melodic Death Metal sound in any means, but overall the track does take on a whole new focus musically and makes for a nice slight change of pace that fits the overall tone the band is trying to give off.

One of the biggest perks of this album is the mixture of the Swedish Death Metal intensity and the groovier American Death Metal sound that bands like Cannibal Corpse are known for. Some of these changes do occur mid song, and luckily much of the time they are transitioned very well and end up suiting the flow of the music. The "They Speak" is the first example of this, doing a nice job at the thudding drums and furious guitars just tear away at the listener's face with a very creepy atmosphere that is definitely aided by the rougher audio cassette quality. That additional groove is catch enough to make any listener immediately head bang along the second the track starts, and keep it going through the various changes of pace and style until the very end. Of course this song is bled into from the furious title track "Neurotic Necrotic" nicely, merging the two as more like one entity though clearly different concepts of the Death Metal style.

And that's one of the things that works so well for this release. A lot of the songs flow smoothly from one to another that half the time you won't even notice you went through a song, or multiple ones at that, especially when you encounter shorter tracks. While some of the traditional length cuts allow the band to really make the experience a little richer, such as with the aforementioned songs and many others like the much slower, eery "A Chamber Beneath," these shorter ones do still pack a strong impact to the album, though many times you may end up missing them by lumping them into others if not paying careful enough attention. This is especially worth noting when it comes to the more instrumental tracks like "Await the Slaughter." This one starts up as a separate entity and doesn't really have any sort of transition with "Temple of Vomit," thanks largely to the fades utilized between the two, but the slower, chugging pace makes for a creepy atmosphere that bleeds into "The Arrival" well and doesn't send up any sort of flag that the song seriously changed outside a quick drum-only segment, but it feels natural to the track's progression.

Another aspect of Neurotic Necrotic worth mentioning would be the guitar solos littered throughout. Many of them are short and sweet, but they get to the point fairly quick, and often greatly match the mood of the song, as well as the intensity, or more restrained, slower approach. The latter ones usually sound good and a little more creepy, typically having a longer length as well, or they can just go ballistic during a sudden shift of speed. But the faster ones really harken back to early Thrash solos, and simply feel fitting to the old-school Death Metal sound and audio quality of the album.

Neurotic Necrotic may not be a high-class recording, but what it lacks in a clearer sound, it more than makes up for with what makes a Death Metal album great. The raw and simply brutalizing mixture of Death Metal intensity and groove-based riffs and drumming don't necessarily make this a unique album, but it sure is one hell of a ride from start to finish. The fluidity between tracks and how smoothly they can transition in and out of each other works very well in Putrified's favor, and there are countless tracks on here that will make you head bang right along to every beat of the drum or catchy riff of the guitars. That lo-fi production really sets the tone for a story that, from what one can gather from listening instead of just reading the lyric sheet along to the music, really sounds well thought out and ends up matching the creepy and/or dark atmospheres of both the faster, intense tracks, and the colder, darker passages. The only gripes are the way some parts of the drum kit sound, drowned out instrument issues here and there, and vocals needing to be a bit lower, but much of this can easily be overlooked with just a short amount of time with this album. In the end, Neurotic Necrotic is a release that Death Metal fans definitely shouldn't pass up, but should definitely be aware that listening to this release will cause some serious whiplash to the listener.

Submit to Social Networks	Donater/Ethic Info
	Digital review copy of this release provided by: Hellthrasher Productions.

Advertisement

Comment

blog comments powered by Disqus