Cerebral Cereal

I would argue that Pyaemia's Cerebral Cereal is a classic of brutal death metal and a highly underrated one at that. Being released in 2001, it remains the only full-length ever put out by the band due to their drummer suffering a wrist injury. It's no surprise that the band preferred to split rather than press on with a new drummer, as the drumwork in Cerebral Cereal is one of the best I've heard in brutal death. The blast beats are relentless and incessant, pounding your ears to a bleeding pulp at breakneck speed.

The riffs on this album are simply stellar and memorable as they grab the listener by the neck and demand their full attention. Engaging and dare I say even groovy or melodic riffs make this album a definite must-listen. Coupled with the blasting drumwork, the overall sound of this album remains extremely brutal and heavy while still enjoyable to listen to. The main riff on Blood Spewed on My Face has to be my favourite in the entire album with the one in Sugar Spiced Anus (what a title) coming in at a close second. A multitude of tempo changes mix the heavy chugs, proto-slamming grooves and catchy melodic riffs to birth this absolute masterpiece of an album. Supreme songwriting is at play here which just elevates this album even more. At just under 30 minutes, Cerebral Cereal is short but sweet although I definitely would not mind a few more songs of the same caliber and intensity.

The vocals are top-tier brutal death gutturals reminiscent of Matti Way. Nothing too wacky but excellent and filthy nonetheless. A variety of low growls, high screams and barking roars prevent it from sounding monotonous or boring. The album’s production is clean but not overproduced which lets each element of the music shine in its disgustingly brutal beauty. Overall, Pyaemia’s Cerebral Cereal is a hallmark of brutal death metal and is an essential listen for fans of the genre or just heavy music in general.

Absolute classic in technical death metal. this is one of those early albums that helped define the genre, and changed the face of death metal. The main thing here is the drummer, and it is no surprise that after his accident they had to stop, for lack of drummers. The guitar work is amazing and the bass is also pretty cool, stands out from the guitars quiet a bit and is pretty well audible through out the album. The vocals are pretty standard, really low growling vocals. The drummer plays pretty much constant blast beats, and the double bass work is constant 32nd notes under the entire thing, every riff has these. His foot work is absolutely amazing, very few people can compare, perhaps George Kolias of Nile fame, and a few others. But really his drumming is inhuman in terms of stamina and constancy goes. That is what makes this album so relentless, the incredible drumming. Everything else is also top notch, all of the songs rule, without exception. The entire album is roughly half an hour, but you will break a sweat just listening to it. Really that is all that can be said about this classic, it needs to be heard. If you by some chance have missed this and are into brutal death metal, get it by all means, this is a really basic album in the genre.

"We dedicate this album to the gods of deathgrind Suffocation R.I.P.", so it is written in the cd booklet of "Cerebral Cereal", the debut album of Dutch band Pyaemia. And that tells you exactly where they went shopping musically; from the opening song "Gorging On Mucus And Bile" onward, the Rotterdam band blasts tightly and in highest gear through their fast death/grind, whereby Suffocation indeed comes to the surface from time to time, especially in the slower parts where they play with the tempi. Nothing wrong with that, because the band adequately performs its task on this debut (with a very funny title), that was recorded in the Excess Studio in Rotterdam, without making their influences too obvious.

Fans of blast beats, deep grunts in the vein of Frank "Grizzly Bear" Mullen, heavy guitar riffs but also the necessary variation, will certainly be satisfied with this fairly civilised and transparent sounding cd, and I'm certain we'll hear a lot more from these four guys in the future.
A small point of criticism though, apparently good songs don't last long, because after a little over 29 minutes the party is over ...

This is excellent deathgrind in the Suffocation vein, no more or less. Differences between bands in this style can seem largely hypothetical to the disinterested observer, but this band's rather distinct brand of mutated melody helps to separate them from the crowd. I think most of the music here would probably sound decent enough if played on violin, believe it or not, and the songwriting is very memorable. In particular I find myself whistling the tremolo riffing starting at about 1:10 in "Impaled on Stakes" from time to time. Seriously! Sometimes the music makes me imagine small chamber pieces performed by beings from hell, but maybe I have more imagination than most. The ridiculous song titles (no lyrics are provided) might be a turnoff for some, but they do fit in with the music's healthy sense of absurdity.

The excellent production is also worth mentioning. Usually one may expect a deathgrind recording to sound like a trash compactor operating in a dank cave, but here everything comes in loud and clear.

In short, much better than the average release in this style.

If anyone enjoys sick vocals, fast and technical drumming as well as heavy guitar and bass riffs then Pyaemia is just the band for them. With a lot of groovy riffs and beats Pyaemia hold a sort of style of their own highly familiar to that of their friends Disavowed. The drumming is full of blast beats and double bass. Guitars are complicated yet very understandable, as for the vocals they are deep and gurgley whilst the scream is loud and high-pitched.

As a band they are extremely tight. Everyone is great at what he does and knows what he is doing. Innovative ideas erupt in every song pleasing the listener from track 1 all the way through track 9. If anyone gets bored listening to these guys, he deserves to be hacked up and fed to wild bores.On the whole the production is good. Sound quality is amazing, the snare is slightly lower than the rest of the instruments but other then that it’s great. One can easily notice that the songs are based on gore just by observing the front CD cover.

First of all...the album title. It cracks me up. So do the song titles. 'Sugar Spiced Anus', 'Cranial Blowout', 'Blood Spewed On My Face'. It's just such a wonderful picture. Anyways, this isn't about lyrics and titles, it's about music. Sharing members with Disavowed (on the same label, Unique Leader Records...one of the best labels), this band is bound to be good. Pulling off some nice drumming and guitarwork on the songs 'Everlasting Torture' and 'Malodorous Rancidity' and covering it all up in a blanket of low vocals and blastbeats, these songs absolutely must be heard by fans of Disavowed, Spawn Of Posession, and Disgorge (any of the 689767 of them). I can't say much about the album, besides that it is quite the solid release on one of the best brutal labels. Oh, and the title track is worth popping if you like Suffocation. That's about it. Order this if you already haven't.