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Jungle Rot > What Horrors Await > Reviews
Jungle Rot - What Horrors Await

Defying the concept of progression again. - 73%

hells_unicorn, August 7th, 2013

Some old dogs can learn new tricks, they just simply refuse to for some reason. That's how Jungle Rot functions, churning out the same tried and true death metal clichés that were well established before their foundation circa 1994. Hearing any one of their gradually growing number of LPs is along the same lines as listening to an early Obituary album, save that later albums after guitarist Jimi Bell left the fold were generally bereft of any guitar solos or elaborate, flashy devices that were largely a staple of early 90s death metal. But much of the groovy thrashing character that generally typified "Slowly We Rot" can be found throughout their catalog, touched up with a punchier and only mildly sludgy guitar character that puts them a bit closer to a Six Feet Under sound, though mercifully the riffs are a bit more animated and the vocals are a bit more varied.

Granted, "What Horrors Await" tends to stand out a bit from its predecessors in that it's a bit longer in scope, almost like a throwback to "Dead And Buried" but with a little less variety. Right from the inception of the album's opening bruiser "Worst Case Scenario", it's pretty clear that the approach is largely based in repetition and very slight variation, shifting back and forth between a middle of the road groove with a Slayer-inspired chug riff with a little bit of chromatic detailing here and there and an occasional high speed burst right out of "Scream Bloody Gore". Similar examples of rugged simplicity that largely pounds the ground at a moderate pace can be found in "State Of War" and "Braindead", almost wanting to turn into Pantera at times, but coming off as just a tad too dark to fully fit in with the mechanized feel of "Far Beyond Driven". Everything is an exercise in unity, to the point where the bass can barely be heard apart from the guitars, even more so than on any previous offering.

It wouldn't be much of a stretch to liken what Jungle Rot does on here to a crossover take on death metal, as commonalities to S.O.D. and even Municipal Waste come into play at a few points. Much of the music on here is generally short and to the point, wildly predictable, but nevertheless effective from a qualitative standpoint. In contrast to the last couple of albums, a few reasonably placed guitar solos can be found, particularly at the tail end of "Braindead", and the vocal performance of Dave Matrise is largely a one-dimensional bark that's reminiscent of Chris Barnes post-Cannibal Corpse with maybe the occasional nod to Glen Benton here and there. The presentation is somewhat influenced by NYHC and the thrash influences are pretty hard to miss, as can be heard on quickies like the jolting thrasher "End Of An Age" and the slightly more elaborate and Bay Area influenced riff monster "Atrocity". But the true flashpoint hits with the cover of Destruction's "Invincible Force", which doesn't sound too different from the original save the deeper, toneless grunting vocals and the slightly muddier guitar tone.

Ultimately the scenery of blood-drenched corpses rotting in the tropical sun as madmen armed with knives and machetes is unchanged, and with it the same sonic mixture of aggression and primitive barbarity. Even the most creative crafters of cadaver art can only come up with so many monuments to their own depravity before repetition starts to set in. Jungle Rot has embraced this eventuality to the point that they are literally trying to realize it with every passing album. Occasional consumers of this older version of death metal might want to stick to the material with Jimi Bell still in the band as it tends to typify the early 90s sound just a bit more, but if someone wanted to pick up a 3rd album of theirs (or 4th if you count the "Skin The Living" demo), this is the obvious candidate. It's just a tiny bit more interesting than the rest of a largely straight and narrow approach to an already limited style.

Maybe in thirty years they'll add some sweeps - 90%

iamntbatman, November 16th, 2009

Well, you can breathe a sigh of relief because Jungle Rot are still Jungle Rot. They're still the meat and potatoes of the death metal world, forgoing solos, blastbeats and anything else that might be considered technical in favor of emphasis on mid-paced, bone-crunching riffs.

Oh, the riffs. Just like every Jungle Rot record before it, What Horrors Await is like a best-of of mid-paced death metal riffage. Every single one of them, from the opening notes of "Worst Case Scenario" right through the close of "Black Candle Mass" is a groovy, pummeling masterpiece. The two guitars, panned to either side, are audibly different; the guitar in the right channel has a bit more treble and crunch, while the left side has more bass and is a bit muddier. It seems like a really subtle, perhaps even over-analytical thing to point out, but for a band that willfully avoids solos, leads or even differences in what the two guitars play at all, I find it important to have some sort of reason for having two guitar players in the first place. Every once in a while the guitars will play different things, such as the section "State Of War" where the right-panned guitar plays a higher tremolo bit a couple of times, but these are few and far between. The album's sole "lead guitar" part is about 2/3 of the way through "Exit Wounds" where the guitars actually do a pretty cool harmonized lead bit. Nothing special in the grande scheme of things, but a nice little touch for a Jungle Rot song. There's also a really good solo at the end of "Invisible Force" that just about comes out of nowhere, but even this solo is about as straightforward as you get for death metal, so it fits the Jungle Rot aesthetic just fine. The riffs themselves, as usual, are a good mixture of mid-paced tremolo with simpler chugging riffs. The band once again includes breakdowns (no, not the silly deathcore kind) to great effect, such in as the middle section of "Straightjacket Life". The guitar tone is nice and meaty, perfectly suited for this type of playing.

The bass...well, it's in there somewhere, but it's never doing anything more than doubling the guitar riffs so it mostly just serves to thicken up the bottom end. I can't really complain about it but it's nothing special, either.

Drum work is very basic. The album is devoid of blasting of any kind and doesn't have much in the way of fills, either, other than rudimentary tom fills. Mostly what we have here is simple double bass drumming alternated with simpler punkish beats.

Dave Matrise's vocals are a highlight this time around, as it seems like he's gone out of his way to add to his vocal arsenal. Most often he uses a mid-ranged growl quite similar to Piotr Wiwczarek of Vader, with clear enunciation. Occassionally he employs a higher pitched scream to accentuate the ends of lines, not too dissimilar from Corpsegrinder of Cannibal Corpse, and he also occassionally uses a lower growl, especially during the slower parts of the songs. There's also use of more vocal effects here than on previous albums, including multi-tracked vocals.

The production here is immaculate. Drums, guitar and vocals are all very clear, though the bass drums are a bit on the "clicky" side and seem heavily triggered, but the generally slower paced drumming makes this much less noticeable than on faster songs so it's not as annoying as heavily triggered drums can sometimes be.

If you're a fan of Jungle Rot you won't be let down by What Horrors Await. If you aren't a fan, this isn't going to do anything to sway your opinion as it is along the same lines as all of their previous albums. If you haven't heard the band, this album is as good a starting point in their discography as anything else and comes highly recommended to anyone looking for some incredibly straightforward, perhaps even minimalist, death metal with incredibly solid riffing.