Reanimations

Like any Death Metal fan, when I eagerly put on an album of a band I have liked for years, I expect certain things. With Avulsed I expect deep guttural vocals, lots of riffs, plenty of rhythm, great drum sound including a chest thudding bass drum and tons of bass that makes your speakers groan with the heaviness. With Reanimations I get all of these except the tons of bass on the new songs, which is the very important for a band like Avulsed. Reanimations is not a new album by Avulsed but a mixture of material serving as an intermediary before the next full length. However according to Mr Rotten it’s not an album or mini album but “an appetiser between one album and the next”. I can hear some of you cynics saying “cash in”. The album consists of 2 new Avulsed songs, a reworking of an older song, 3 covers, 9 bands covering Avulsed songs and a video clip. The new Avulsed songs sound very clean with nice crisp guitar sections and a crystal clear drum sound. The bass is lacking somewhat as previously mentioned but this does not deter from the battering and pulverising you’d expect from Avulsed. The reworked song is Unconscious Pleasure from the bands 1992 demo Embalmed in Blood, which having not heard the original, would easily sit among any of the newer songs Avulsed do today.

The 3 cover versions on offer are Piranha (Exodus); I Wanna Be Somebody (W.A.S.P.) and Mental Misery (Gorefest). Avulsed are no strangers to cover songs, with Ace of Spades being on their last album, Gorespattered Suicide. With the exception of the Gorefest cover, I found it difficult to enjoy the cover songs. Piranha is played at absolute breakneck speed. The melody of the song is there, but the song on first listen seems blasted out and comes across as chaotic. After repeated listens it does get better but as expected the original is better. The W.A.S.P. cover reminds of Six Feet Under doing their awful take on classic metal songs on the Graveyard Classics album. Probably would be enjoyable to hear one of these covers at a gig for a laugh. The rest of the audio aspect of the album contains 9 bands covering Avulsed songs. I have to admit to not having heard of the most of the bands on here. All the bands have been selected after the band suggested the idea on their website. There is a great deal of variation in the songs, ranging from a typical cover to surprises to downright shock. Of the songs on offer, the more typical covers by Embraced, Byleth and Carnavage covering Gorespattered Suicide, Protervia and Stabwound Orgasm respectively don’t really offer anything new in terms of experimentation, but are competent enough versions. Of the remaining covers Devourer of the Dead by In Element has been industrialised with keyboards interspersing the mix. Witches’ Sabbath spoil their cover by adding a pointless keyboard section in the middle of Blessed by Gore. Powdered Flesh and Sweet Lobotomy by Terroristars and Kaothic respectively have much cleaner vocals, with the Kaothic song being the most interesting and different song overall of the two and of all the covers. My favourite song by Avulsed namely Sick Sick Sex has been annihilated by Abfys. An intro has been added, with female vocals hovering in the background and the typical guttural ones at the forefront. There are also spoken words you can hear in the background. Finally there’s a techno “Reanimix” of Stabwound Orgasm which makes me cringe. This isn’t the first time Avulsed have dabbled with having their songs remixed. The Cybergore album is full of them and like that album the remix is of no interest to me whatsoever.

The CD also contains a live video of Let Me Taste Your Flesh shot by a couple of French dudes last year in Paris. The guys have put a lot of effort into the video by amalgamating various camera footage of the song to produce almost a promo video for it. The only criticism is that the footage is little dark. Despite my criticisms of some of the covers, the CD has had much effort put into it and is a worthy addition to keep Avulsed fans placated till the new album.