Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Ditchcreeper - Rotting Repugnancy (2009)

Ditchcreeper is a new death metal band out of the UK, and Rotting Repugnancy is their debut, a serviceable effort which rotates between big, bouncing grooves, guttural secretion vocals, and occasional bursts of more technical guitar work. The band is also firmly entrenched in their roots, for every brutal chug and squeal there is also a passion for old school, creepy, grinding rhythms.

After the narrative intro "Confessions of a Child Killer", we are confronted with the raw stench of "Cunt Puss", with some early Pestilence/Death-like hooks and a nice thrashing break. "Malodorous Vaginal Defloration" opens with some blistering guitars like surgical knives, then some arpeggios over grinding rhythm guitars. "Vaginal Holocaust" is a slower, crawling punishment that fades into more hyper rhythms and some wild, percussive vocals. Other exciting tracks include "Repugnant Ejaculation of Septic Discharge", the throwdown "Castrated for Adultery", and the chaotic/bludgeoning "Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia".

Rotting Repugnancy is crisp and brutal, an easily replicable live tone with some studio polish. The chugs and low end are mosh pit friendly, but there is enough to the album to impress fans beyond the crowd of slam-death simpletons. It's not an amazing death metal debut; it's not unique, but should prove entertaining to a wide range of death metal fans, and the balanced attack does warrant some potential.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/ditchcreeper

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