Fermenting Innards - Drowned EP (1994)

Though Fermenting Innards would go on to put out one of my favorite albums on the entire Invasion Records roster, I had never before heard their original 1994 EP Drowned, which is largely comprised of songs that didn't make it onto their sole full-length. And I'm glad to have checked it out, because while the tracks here don't quite match up to what was coming, this is easily one of the better EPs that arrived in the earlier years of that label's existence. What you have here is basically a Florida-style death metal with some churning Obituary groove to it, perhaps a small amount of that Hellhammer-to-D-beat Swedish influence arriving later in the first track "In Hate". In addition, you can hear a little of why the band earns the black/death metal hybrid tag, though I feel they fall far more decisively on the latter, there are some elements of their blasted rhythms and synths which showcase traces of that...

Still, the riff patterns are largely more clinical and morbid/gory and don't really give me the aesthetic imprints I associate with black metal of the Satanic, nature-themed or folk/Viking variety. This is mostly a bit of death/thrash inspired, reasonably produced material redolent of other German bands like Morgoth or old Atrocity, with a little trace of Carcass or the abovementioned Florida bands. It's nothing too exciting, because the guitar tone isn't all that great, and the tunes aren't littered with amazing, memorable riffs, but if you're looking for some European death metal gems from that mid-90s era, this is a band that was severely overlooked, despite being on the same plane of competence of so many that are now hailed as cult classic bands or albums. Drowned pretty much runs the gamut for the death-styles of its day, only omitting the more brutal/technical niche that was arriving through a Suffocation. A decent appetizer for what was to come the following year...

Verdict: Win [7/10]