Human Mastication - Grotesque Mastication of Putrid Innards (2008)

As fascinating as I generally find Asian metal, and as promising a future as that region of the world holds for the genre as a whole, there are also, like you'd find anywhere else, quite a lot of acts out there that can be reduced to mere mirrors of those that have come before them. In the case of the Phillipines' troglodyte slammers Human Mastication, and their second Sevared Records offering (the first a 2006 split with Singapore's Flesh Disgorged), the concept is more or less a stripped down alternative to the US act Devourment, which in of itself is devoted to shaving off the more technical and varied embellishments of pioneer pervs Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Suffocation into something far more mosh driven; clearly tainted by the influence of meathead hard- or metalcore which was always half audience perspiration to its other half: musical inspiration. For better or worse.

Like their primary influences, Human Mastication are not an all out slam-fest, incorporating some faster flights of colon rupture riffing and drums to help pace the overpopulation of breakdowns. They have a fair grasp of performing their muddied palm-mute rhythms, which are rarely more than re-interpretations of riffs the avid listener will have heard hundreds if not thousands times before 2008. My problem is simply that this music feels so uninspired. One could pick any random band of brutal death (or otherwise) metal musicians and write a dozen records like this in an afternoon. The guitar progressions entirely lack any sense of hook or adventurous nature, they're just chug after chug even when the pace varies, and there's very little musicality if one were to dissect them to their foundations and explore them without the drums. You'll hear a few dingy squeals, but with a lack of solid (or really any) leads of note, and a further lack of atmosphere beyond the bare necessities for windmill kicking and shoving other pit fighters to release some angst. The bass guitar is nothing more than a footnote (common in this niche), and the porcelain god bong-gurgling vocals are just too bland and commonplace, despite their ominous, murky drawl.

Granted, this sort of release has its place in a scene which has often become more about extremity and packaging than actual quality, but I see no reason why one couldn't write a damn good brutal/slam record which delivered both its testosterone quotient and some damn fine music! It can happen, and in fact, it has. See Kraanium, Ingested or Short Bus Pile Up for example of how bands can make such a cranial ache better worth the while. I could forgive Grotesque Mastication of Putrid Innards if its lack of ambition was overcome by some excellent, fun songwriting, but it's just too settled in its arbitrary, meandering sense of sameness and monotony with only those few tempo bursts to keep it from passing the precipice of utter boredom. Add to that the truly muddled, jam room production values and you've got a record which just fails to exit its starting gate, never mind crash and crush against its competitors in the demolition derby. It's not the shittiest shit-stain of a death metal defecation out there, but too little risk and effort reaps too little reward. I think they can do better.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

http://www.facebook.com/HumanMasticationOfficial

Deiphago - Satan Alpha Omega (2012)

Deiphago of the Philippines provides such an over the top, barbaric blast to the face that it's almost difficult to qualify or quantify what they play as 'music', at least in terms of the traditional aesthetics of melody, harmony and the memorable fortification of rhythmic timekeeping. That's not to say that what they perform is void of any intrinsic, blasphemous value, because a more fucked up ride than this you are not likely to take again anytime soon, and in the tradition of their prior efforts like Filipino Antichrist, they really grind the genre to the hilt, as if they were audio manifestations of living hellfire that sought to seethe and burn through the speakers and headphones into their target audience and melt their damp brains.

I suppose at the root of this repulsive abomination is a hint of incendiary black/war metal redolent of groups like Bestial Warlust, Blasphemy or Revenge, with a fraction of Impiety's noisier 90s friction. I'm also reminded of a local group called Watchmaker, who pursued a similar if more dynamically integrated sense of chaos.The drums are splayed out in blast beat patterns, and the guitars highly distorted. So distorted, in fact, that they feel like they're being twisted through space as they brutishly mete out their discordant clamor. Several sequences are slower, gaping and doom-like, and these feel just as unnatural and fucked as the rest of the riffs, but usually they rifle along at an accelerated pacing. The leads used in tracks like "Exalted Hate" feel like web-works of madness being strewn about the abyssal layer of pummeling and painful momentum, and it's quite easy to become confused and unnerved in the process. The bass is unadulterated, churning sewage, a manhole to an underworld of heinous torture.

Be warned: there is nothing remotely comfortable about this material. Most music is written with the intention that you'll recall and hum along to it later. That's not what an album like Satan Alpha Omega is really about.
Where most extreme metal bands encapsulate their infamy into familiar rhythmic environs, this is extremely, ergonomically unsafe and highly stress inducing. It's like having your spine removed and cast into a giant hamster wheel with ravenous daemons doing laps inside, the nerve endings still attached to the rest of your being. And yet, it's internally consistent. There is a method to this madness. The band doesn't merely fire up a conflagration of random sounds, they leave the chaos to the architecture of the guitars and tease you with the familiar, hoarse rasping of the black metal genre, the solid and spastic drums. It's familiar, and yet so very, very different.

In the end, Satan Alpha Omega is infernal nihilism in the flesh. A tantrum of Leviathan. If I listened to this any more out loud in my apartment, I'd probably get evicted. Primordial, ugly and repulsive, it will rape your ears, then leave bleeding on your doorstop without so much as a goodbye or apology. It's not an album you experience to 'enjoy'...but to 'destroy'. Not in any way 'great', but grating with as much beatific hostility the trio can muster with the 20+ years of history behind it. If this sounds in any way attractive to that misanthropic imp that awaits restlessly within your psyche, seeking to punish you at any given moment, then suffer it well.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://deiphago.webs.com/

Kratornas - The Corroding Age of Wounds (2009)

Bruno Zamora has been battering away at his one-man brand of vicious and raw black metal for over a decade, and two years ago released the first proper full-length, Over the Fourth Part of the Earth, which showed the man's potential for over the top, disgusting primal chaos, black metal with traces of death and grind that amplify its extremity. The Corroding Age of Wounds is a sound follow-up, but be warned: this is not the type of black metal record you listen to for catchy or hypnotic rhythms, it's an almost unmitigated, barbaric onslaught of filth.

I'm going to say up front that the drum machine did not work for me through this album. The beats match the riffs, but something just feels disconnected, perhaps it was the mix, perhaps some added fills are needed. Beyond that, the guitars sizzle with abyssal fury and Zamora's vocals are absolutely infectious in that hellish sense that they would almost dominate the mix (if not for the raw, blazing guitars). "Beasts Form the Sea" is a turbulent, chaotic blitz of black metal that ranges from majestic, scything rhythms to blasting blitzkrieg. "On Dying Aeons" opens with a simple, bloodied melody and "Three Unclean Spirits" has a punkish, grinding edge to its lead-in rhythm. Other tracks that will have you cutting into your own flesh include the tumult and confusion of "Chaosblade", and the great riffing of "Interstellar Doom".

The Corroding Age of Wounds is a good effort, it does capture the essence of savage black metal channeled through its influences, but from a new perspective. Kratornas is another example of what a single vision can accomplish with a guitar and spirit fueled by cruelty. The only weaknesses that remain are the sub-par use of the drum machine and often inaudible bass. Once these are addressed, Zamora will have himself a top shelf project.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.kratornas.com/