Graveyard Ghoul - Slaughtered - Defiled – Dismembered
Germany is producing an endless supply of death metal acts each with their own identity as Graveyard Ghoul add to that conveyor belt of brutality with their third album of guttural death metal that owes plenty to the Autopsy style of sonic effluent. The bands previous efforts are a lesson of keeping the sound grisly and punishing the listener with a raft of putrid riffing that continues here with a set of songs that leave you with a feeling of absolute corruption that begins with 'Mouldered To Madness' after its very short intro sample piece. The bands trademark guitar sound seems filthier and delves into ever further murky depths of rancidity that has a slight Hellhammer feel. Bands of this ilk aren’t out to blast your putrefying corpse into a bloody pulp preferring to maintain steady tempos with sporadic savage workouts to excellent effect. The title track begins in this fashion but as the song evolves/devolves (delete as applicable) a thundering double kick floods in, which has a great organic sound linked to the rumbling locomotive sounding bass runs.
'Born Without Bones' conjures up images of what a human would look like without bones lying on the floor in a mushy mess as the song delves slightly into a crust like riffing structure. The riff break is excellent and signals the songs increase in speed momentarily with the vocals having a slight echo and delay that makes the song and album like listening to it in a stone catacomb. 'Necrocult' offers two minutes of sewage slurping toxicity keeping the foot firmly pressed on the gas rarely relenting for the occasional riff break and punchy yet catchy choral like break.
Another sample starts 'V.H.S.' and the riff is definitely hacked from the bones of Autopsy as the song has a doom death flavour, with a slow permeating beat and deep resonating vocal delivery. The very slight increase in pace is excellent as I couldn’t help thinking about Lemmy due to the bass hook as the songs inexorable path to the speed workout beckons; you can feel it as the song ploughs on slowly when it very suddenly materialises after a fine bass riff.
'Woundfuck' is a curious song, being over seven minutes long following another sample, the song is, as expected, slow to begin with, creating a horror like atmosphere as the tune produces one of the albums catchiest riffs and beats. The methodical pace is infectious setting that head on a metronomic path to self-annihilation that leads into a very punchy but extremely catchy riff that sticks in your head. Warhammer is scribbled after the intro to 'Necrotic Lust' which again has that very accessible but raw riff implanting in your head before the track shifts tempo into much speedier realms. Critically I’d argue that the speed workouts are less effective than the slower more pervasive riffing style and bone crunching rhythm section but they add substance to the tracks overall. Got to love these song titles as 'Amputation Masturbation' is the penultimate tune with its slow start and piercing bass hook that leads into the song morphing into a very early Bathory like style, being foetidly raw and nasty. 'Into Abyssal Spheres' closes the release with a fast and bludgeoning workout that is borderline chaotic as the riff is very dirty thrash based, similar to Bathory as mentioned, but instead of maintaining the speed it is knocked down in angular sections with no warning but to great effect.
If you like the repellent sonic stench of bands like Autopsy, Abscess, Bastard Priest, very early Grave, then this slab of rottenness is definitely for you.
'Born Without Bones' conjures up images of what a human would look like without bones lying on the floor in a mushy mess as the song delves slightly into a crust like riffing structure. The riff break is excellent and signals the songs increase in speed momentarily with the vocals having a slight echo and delay that makes the song and album like listening to it in a stone catacomb. 'Necrocult' offers two minutes of sewage slurping toxicity keeping the foot firmly pressed on the gas rarely relenting for the occasional riff break and punchy yet catchy choral like break.
Another sample starts 'V.H.S.' and the riff is definitely hacked from the bones of Autopsy as the song has a doom death flavour, with a slow permeating beat and deep resonating vocal delivery. The very slight increase in pace is excellent as I couldn’t help thinking about Lemmy due to the bass hook as the songs inexorable path to the speed workout beckons; you can feel it as the song ploughs on slowly when it very suddenly materialises after a fine bass riff.
'Woundfuck' is a curious song, being over seven minutes long following another sample, the song is, as expected, slow to begin with, creating a horror like atmosphere as the tune produces one of the albums catchiest riffs and beats. The methodical pace is infectious setting that head on a metronomic path to self-annihilation that leads into a very punchy but extremely catchy riff that sticks in your head. Warhammer is scribbled after the intro to 'Necrotic Lust' which again has that very accessible but raw riff implanting in your head before the track shifts tempo into much speedier realms. Critically I’d argue that the speed workouts are less effective than the slower more pervasive riffing style and bone crunching rhythm section but they add substance to the tracks overall. Got to love these song titles as 'Amputation Masturbation' is the penultimate tune with its slow start and piercing bass hook that leads into the song morphing into a very early Bathory like style, being foetidly raw and nasty. 'Into Abyssal Spheres' closes the release with a fast and bludgeoning workout that is borderline chaotic as the riff is very dirty thrash based, similar to Bathory as mentioned, but instead of maintaining the speed it is knocked down in angular sections with no warning but to great effect.
If you like the repellent sonic stench of bands like Autopsy, Abscess, Bastard Priest, very early Grave, then this slab of rottenness is definitely for you.
- Mouldered To Madness
- Slaughtered - Defiled - Dismembered
- Born Without Bones
- Necrocult
- Pestilent
- V.H.S.
- Woundfuck
- Necrotic Lust
- They Won't Stay Dead
- Amputation Masturbation
- Into Abyssal Spheres
