Pleasure of Consumption

This Polish trio seemed to give some love... no, BIG love, to HM-2 infused Swedish death metal here. This piece of gory slab is the band's sophomore full-length album, even though after their inception in 1992 they put out a pile of demos and split releases. Even the debut album was about 5 years old when this second big baby came out...

The sound can be extremely aversive; it drills into brain so easily. The guitar tone is HM-2 and thick and loud bass guitar is playing the same stuff, making it sounds like crawler borer penetrating; it's so loud and thick that the riffs are not at all easy to fathom. Not the recommended first HM-2 album for newcomers I'd say... Guitar lead bits head on few songs sound very annoying, like 8-bit guitar emulator; not joking! The drums are organic, being well-audible in the mix. So, it is familiar Swedish-style ominous death riffs plus more punky 'n grinding revving, and the drums offer d-beats, blast beats and skank beats, plus variety of suitable death metal processions. So, it is often very much in-your-face type aggression. The vocals are throaty and not very powerful, somewhat Jeff Walker-ish (Carcass) dry croak-growling, plus some doubled gory scream-growls, with heavy microphone-distortions.

There's nothing new to be found, compositionswise. The guitar department is filled with very familiar chord progressions from Stockholm school of death metal riffing, and more punky ripping is pretty much forgettable, and very much similar throughout the album. I think it is the lively drumming that saves a lot on this album. The band is mostly pushing it onward most of the time, not doing many breakdowns during their 30 minutes (not counting the covers or bonus EP; more about them later). So, it is furiously served, there's no doubt about it. I have to admit that I do not have many memory imprints after the album is over. It's just for feeling beat up when the album ends... and during it! The songs do have some progression in them, e.g. 'Blood for Blood', but the effect for me was "Is this another song or still track 2???"

The album was lengthened by adding two cover songs and the formerly unreleased 3-song 'Promo '97', which is more goregrindy stuff, reminding of old Carcass, but still the Stockholm death metal influences are abound. It comes with more demo-style sound; it's not bad, but actually transparent, yet somehow disjointed. Easier for the ears than the album, though! As for the cover songs, especially Hypocrisy's 'Osculum Obscenum' sticks heavily sticks out, pointing out how Incarnated's own songs are so indiscernible. Impaled Nazarene's 'Ghettoblaster' includes some great double kick drumming, and again, sticks out well.

If you want basic goregrind mixed with basic Stockholm death metal, then you may find something of interest in this album. Otherwise it is best to left unconsumed, because it might leave you ungratified. Fuck, my ears feel like stuffed turkeys!

(Originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com)

I'm amazed that this awful record has an average rating of 70/100. This puts it into the category of okay, acceptable mediocre grindcore bands, that you have no problem listening to, but really don't rush out into the nearest CD shop to get yourself a copy. And this really surprises me, because this is among the worst music I have ever heard within the metal genre!

The vocals are terrible, but really tries hard to make a guttural growl. Unfortunately, it's a dull and boring growl, that lacks any kind of growling talent and sometimes is hardly audible.
The guitars have the same goddamn buzz-sound during the whole damn album! It sounds like some basement black metal band's demo release on cassette. Jesus Christ, this could've been played by someone who just came in from the streets. They could've just recorded a couple of seconds of the guitar and then looped it for the rest of the tracks.
I will not even talk about the bass, because it's dead and gone like this band's talent, if they ever had one.
The drums, on the other hand, are maybe the most surprising of the record, since they are so incredibly stupid and awful. Besides a few half-hearted attempts to do some fills, this drummer plays the same boring beat over and over.

The cover is a little bit funny and the band name logo on the CD, written with knifes and forkes etc., is one of the only good ideas ever thought of by Incarnated.

All in all, this stinks! 10/100 is a nice rating, since it does not conlcude that this CD should instead be used as a Frisbee... But then again, "Please of Consumption" must be good for something!
If you really want to buy some obscure grind, then buy anything but this. You won't get THAT dissapointed then.

'Pleasure Of Consumption' took a little while for me to warm up to, but now I can say it's one of the more played CDs in my brutal death collection. The biggest leap: getting over the strangeness of the guitar tone, with its ultra-distorted, low-fi, crumbling sound, like a Mortician bass line with more tonal definition. The second, more minor hurdle was noticing just how much punk influence there is on this album; more than a little, though not approaching mid-era Haemorrhage levels of d-beatity. But it is a clear presence with some of the more uptempo guitar riffs reminding one of oldschool hardcore. Surprisingly enough, it works; the gory production and death metal riffing fuses nicely with those punk moments to provide a fairly unique take on the style of BDM, though nothing really amazing.

This is a sloppy and raw style of brutal death metal, though there is a bit of technical riffing now and then buried in the mass of distortion. Vocals are a pig-like, snorting growl, and the drum performance is actually very good, with lots of blasting and punk beats that fit the various riffs very nicely. Occasionally a manic lead guitar will burst out with an almost painfully sharp tone (though that does fit the rest of the rather painful production) for a brief, atonal solo before disappearing just as quickly. The emphasis, though, is always on brutality over melody: the crushing, ultra-low guitars with almost as low vocals and churning drumwork engineered to work together in delivering a real presence of sonic force. Consider the punk inspired moments a tension-builder for the mid-paced, syncopated sections; they're not quite 'breakdowns', but they have a similar purpose.

Despite the presence of various influences, you can hardly call this multifaceted music. Here's how a song goes: blast, break, blast, break, repeat until end. It's a formula that works, as simple as it is, at conveying the general feel that the band wants. It does feel pretty sick on an aesthetic level; the bizarre vocals are nearly nauseating in their grotesqueness, and the perpetual clanging of the ride cymbal buried somewhere in the guitars is equally menacing. It's not an album that will change anyone's mind on brutal death metal, but at the same time, it's really not an album for very traditional brutal death metallers either. It's sort of fitting that this album comes out of Poland; it has that sort of DIY, stubbornly unique feel about it. Anyway, it's neither for the people who will only listen to Devourment or for power metal fans. Just give it a try if you like stuff on the brutal side of death metal but want it a little bit stranger to taste.