Practitioners of Perversion

Sick fucks from Texas are back with their second brutal offering. Viral Load plays guttural Texas brand of death metal filled with juicy slams, fast double bass drumming and thunderous blast beats. Their drummer Dobber left the band before recording of this album so they are back using drum machine once again. Vocals offer a scale from ultra guttural swamp frog noises to higher screams. Guitarist Shawn shows why he is one of the most talented and skillful guitar players of the today's US death scene changing from powerful slams to great melodic solos too, prime example of his sense of melody being the instrumental track 'Blinded By Semen'. Drum machine sound is definitely better than it was on their debut album, now sounding closer to a real drum set. If you're a fan of Texas death metal and the more brutal side of the death metal scene, this one is mandatory purchase. The re-release version has their 'Mouth Watering Stench' demo as bonus and that's Viral Load's only release which includes human drummer.

...Well, that's the best to the describe the blazingly fast drum machine employed the late Viral Load. Yes, this band kills your favorite band, and yes the are more technical.

I must start this review off by complimenting the well-played solos by the Shawn Whitaker (now of Insisidious Decrepancy). He outshreds a lot of guitarist. The solos don't sound random or sloppy, well thought out and they add a chaotic feeling to the songs. The riffs he plays are extremely heavy, typical-sounding Texas slams. Plenty of breakdowns to wet the average slam fan's plate. The vocals are guttural this time around, unlike the on Brutalized Beyond Belief where they are more "gang"-style.

I cannot stress the heaviness and groove of the riffs enough, this is just the base of Viral Load's sound. The groove is like, tumble weed slams. The riffs blow through dirt-covered small towns in south Texas, killing everyone in their path! Another good thing about this album is even though Viral Load used a drum machine, they didn't go overkill, like say, Fuck...I'm Dead or Necrophagist does at times. The tempos sound realistic, like if a live drummer was there... A very good final album, too bad Viral Load fell into the ranks of other late-90's, early-2000's brutal bands who released an album or two and a demo, then quit. Brutality ain't easy...