Kingdom of Corpses

Have you heard pretty much any other semi-technical brutal death metal album in the vein of Unique Leader's roster? Then you've got no reason to even think of Lust of Decay's 'Kingdom of Corpses', which so eagerly clings to the trappings of its genre without offering any reason to come back to it over other similar albums that it's hard to see any reason for it to exist. I mean, even the cover art and the song titles are your bog standard brutal death metal tripe. 'Septic Tank Abortion', 'Oral Asphyxiation', 'Arachnid Anal Infestation'-- I swear I've seen every one of these in the track listings of a Gorgasm or a Lividity record.

Bearing in mind the cover art and the song titles, I went into this album expecting exactly what I got: brutal death metal with a dash of technicality, following in the tradition of Disavowed and Gorgasm but with none of the memorability and staying power that makes those bands worth listening to. It's not unpleasant to listen to, I guess, but most of it goes through one ear and out the other in a shapeless haze of technical exercises in fretboard wizardry and rapid-fire tremolo runs, leaving no particular impression other than 'jeez, I'm only two minutes into this song and I feel like I've listened to the entire album'. Halfway through the album, my ears perked up, and I realised in awe that Lust of Decay were playing a riff, an honest to god riff, something that can actually linger in your mind and give you a reason to come back to it-- and then I realised, wait, this is a Deicide song. Sure enough, the one song where Lust of Decay bothers to play something resembling a riff happens to be a cover of an old school death metal song.

That being said, the album becomes infinitely more worth listening to when Lust of Decay gives it a rest on the endless stream of tremolo and technical runs and starts chugging. Many of these songs feature one or two surprisingly effective grooves, sandwiched in between the boring semi-technical stuff, though they really don't make it worth wading through the rest of the album to get to them-- after all, there are plenty of bands like Disgorge and Pyaemia that intersperse grooves in between technical riffs that are actually worth listening to and coming back to. Still, I can't help but feel that if Lust of Decay structured their songs more around the grooves and let the other riffs act in a diminished capacity as filler building up to the grooves-- that's about all they're worth-- they might produce something that gives the listener a reason to reach for it over the countless other technical brutal death metal albums in this style.

Individual performances are certainly very proficient; the bassist gets an opportunity to shine every now and again, particularly in Cranial Incubation and Cognitive Decimation. Hell, the drummer provides some surprisingly varied beats during the groovier sections, although outside of those moments he mostly operates in the standard blasting-and-double-bass modes of brutal death metal drumming. The only individual performance which is actively grating is the vocalist, who, granted, isn't unique or unusual as brutal death metal vocalists go; there's just something about his delivery that I can't stand.

Long story short, in everything from aesthetic to lyrical content to the music itself, Kingdom of Corpses is a pastiche of every other post-2000 semi-technical brutal death metal band you've ever heard, and in a sense it's sort of emblematic of the problems technical brutal death metal these days suffers from: it's riffless, one-dimensional, and content to remain nothing more than 'okay' without doing a thing to distinguish itself. Not worth listening to in the slightest.

"We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow (Ted Bundy)." The serial killers of modern Brutal Death Metal are Lust of Decay. They come out of North Carolina playing a sickening brand of semi-technical Brutal Death Metal that would send even the most nefarious human into a frightful state of catatonia. Steve Green is on guitar, Jay Barnes does vocals, Joe Payne picks the bass, and Jordan Varela pounds the drums. They have had several lineup changes throughout the years but have managed to keep it together with determination, hard work, and practice. This album proves that they are one of the best bands in Brutal Death Metal and are arguably one of the more underrated acts in the Metal scene.

Now, I do not play any instruments but I’m also not stupid. Steve Green ain’t gonna do some insane fret work like Christian Münzner and Muhammed Suiçmez the guitarists for Necrophagist. But he is gonna make your head feel like it is being cut open with an electric saw via blazing riffs, and break downs. Each song has enough riffage and tempo change to both bust your spine and compel you to nod your head in the direction of a damned good guitarist… Look at the live pictures of this whirlwind maniac for further proof. By contrast Jay Barnes on vocals sounds exactly like a patient with throat cancer. No, I’ve never heard someone with throat cancer sing, but I’ll bet any fucker my two thumbs that if we forced some patients with cancerous black tumor infested voices to sing they would sound just like Jay… Sick, real fucking sick. On bass Joe Payne picks away with the speed of a crack-head digging through a dumpster for a baggy of white powder. He is obviously talented and is quickly technical enough to keep up an insane-head on collision- type of rhythm. If Jason Newstead herd Joe play he would break down crying, then burn all his bass guitars. Backing the rest of these maniacs is Jordan Varela on Drums. Jordan has amazingly quick feet. In another life this beast could probably have been an NFL running back cause feet like that just gotta have agility. Another distinctive thing about Jordan’s play is that he is not content to blast beat his way through every track. Instead, he seems to have a need to smack every piece of his kit as often as possible. If he were any quicker you probably wouldn’t even be able to see his fucking sticks.

This band seems to get comparisons to Lividity, Pyamia, and Devourment, but I disagree. Obviously, there is "Nothing new under the sun," but what these guys have done is create a sound unto itself based on their underrated but exceptional musical abilities combined with what they have heard and learned to play throughout their musical career/lives. They are technical, thrashy, and even boot heel you in the ball sack with some groove stuff akin to Dying Fetus or old "Tomb of the Mutilated" Cannibal Corpse. And if forced to compare them with other bands for sound I'd fit them in with Deeds of Flesh, Gorgasm, and Suffocation from a technical standpoint. Even Lust of Decay's use of porno and horror flick sound samples, which usually falls more in line with Goregrind make them more original. The reason is that they seem to use it as an enhancement whereas other bands like Torsofuck use samples as filler that sometimes takes up half a track or half an album when combined. Lust of Decay is a Brutal Death Metal band that is original in a genre filled with many clones. They definitely deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as bands like Deeds of Flesh, Psycroptic, and Nile.

Now, you all may be out there saying, "Damn Mike, you got me convinced, I'm gonna go and burn this disc." But I say don't waste time burning this disc like a cheap bastard. Buy the album and check out the lyrics, cover art, and various pictures of the band. Hell, if there was such a thing as “justice” in this world bands like Lust of Decay would be bringing in the dollars that retreads like Trivium, Slipshit, and Cradle of Suck reap.

KEEP THE UNDERGROUND ALIVE... NEVER BURN DISCS THAT YOU CAN BUY!!!!