Anatomical Inferno

This time Spanish travel agency Haemorrhage offers a pleasure trip to anatomical inferno. Does it sound encouragingly? Can we expect pony-trekking, coach trip or something like coach tour or photographic nice adventure? Ahem, rather not. Why? Because our tour guide doesn’t seem to be sane, look at the excursive proposals: viewing ‘Treasures Of Anatomy’ or ‘Dawn In The Rotting Paradise’… So, wait a minute, is our choice correct for us? Will it be the best holiday time in our lives? No, we are going to see some unspeakable horror show…

Yep, after these nice words of introduction and encouragement, I declare one thing on the very beginning: this is the best album of these sick and deranged Spaniards. If there is a law of the third album magic, here I have a splendid affirmative proof of this thesis. Here I can consciously write about splendid release and performance of the band, in spite of listening to the newest “Hospital Carnage”. Their first two albums has many Carcass influences, but with “Anatomical Inferno” Spaniards became more ‘original’ band. Writing about production: the musicians managed to gain really excellent pathological sound which makes the music totally devastating for helpless listener. Everything is audible, even drums don’t disappear during maximum speed. The pathologists prepared 14 songs, but the better description should be: 14 worm-infested human cavities…

All right, taking this rotten and putrid piece of metal to my trembling hand and putting it to the cassette recorder (yes, exactly, I have it on a tape, can you believe it???), I know one thing – no boredom will strike my senses! It is very important element in such music like goregrind. And Haemorrhage put into their devastating brutality some riffs which are very ‘catchy’. Listen to the opening track “Enshrouded In Putrilage” (with quasi-lead guitar) and “A Cataleptic Rapture”. Both songs with excellent group of riffs, but the Spaniards of course don’t complicate the music structure. Fast, straight forward shots only. The next tracks worth to mention: “Putritorium” with superb chorus, some slow down and speedup on the end, “Worminfested Cavities”, the next catchy hit song with absolutely crushing chorus and guitar lead, “I’m A Pathologist” – which is like Haemorrhage creed, especially lyrics are the essence of existence he, he. In turn the album is closed up by “Set The Morgue On Fire” with mid-paced tempo on the beginning, crushing chorus and marvelous ending (‘marvelous’ in Haemorrhage meaning of course…). It makes this sick track the next highlight from the album.

All these fourteen de-compositions are really destructive force. Even I find here this specific sense of humour, the main task of Spaniards is to shatter listener’s nervous system. Although each member of the band is important part of machine, some additional words I have to write about Lugubrious, the vocalist. The vocalist? Booklet says: ‘vox maligna’. And these two words exactly describe potentiality of this man (or should I write ‘a singing pathologist’?). Totally inhuman and barbarous: from guttural growls, shrieks, blackish screams to vocals vomit, savage gurgitations and other nice euphonic destroyers of listener auricle. Lugubrious is number one in this metal genre.

I saw them live only two times and when I start to listen to this stuff (or another Haemorrhage effluvium) with bated breath, these splendid enjoyable moments cross my mind. For sure their stage activity is a complement to the entirety called Haemorrhage. Musically they can maintain here excellent balance between bestial devastating blasts and mid tempo catchy parts. These thirty minutes run very fast, music effectively kills boredom (something like ‘dissecting the dullness’). And when somebody looks at the front cover, only green shades are present and nothing foreshadows upcoming sonic disaster. Fortunately first track takes me to this sick world of deranged pathology and musical pleasure. I plunge into world of anatomy…

Haemorrhage is essentially death metal's answer to Agathocles, and not simply due to the enormous numbers of split 7" releases the band manages to churn out. It's additionally due to the general spirit of the band; that they'll be sticking with their sound forever without ever deviating from what they want to do. With eighteen years of goregrinding madness under their belts, Haemorrhage have truly entrenched themselves in the metal scene unlike many other artists in their same field. I'm a fan- to some degree. Haemorrhage's sound, though always concerned with the same general musical themes, tightened up significantly later in their career, and though I can appreciate their third album, 'Anatomical Inferno', they really began to take off right around their next LP.

The music that Haemorrhage plays (has always played, will always play) is oldschool, heavily Carcass-influenced goregrind with a lot of punk and oldschool hardcore edge. There's as many d-beats as there are blasts, and there's as much punky four-chord strumming as there is tremolo. Dual vocals include a low, possibly pitch-shifted gurgle and a hilariously Spanish-accented, high-pitched goblin yelp, which does add to the spirit of cackling fun about the music. It's hard to take Haemorrhage seriously, and they don't intend to; the music's not dark or atmospheric at all. It genuinely sounds like a bunch of punk kids who happen to love death metal cranking out a bunch of two-minute songs about various icky things that happen in the autopsy room. All the music is very bouncy and catchy, again in the punk style, though it never gets so punky that it's not metal. It's just a very major influence.

Weirdly enough, while I really like the general idea and style of the music on 'Anatomical Inferno', I don't REALLY enjoy the songs a whole lot. It's really more flaws of degree than a true problem with the band itself. The songs are catchy, but they're not catchy enough for me to remember them after the CD is back in its case. The band tends to repeat itself a lot, particularly in the drumming department, which has two settings: punk beats and blasting. The riffs, also, have a similar problem of punk versus tremolo, but the slightly degraded production quality is partially to blame as well, with that somewhat tonally smothered sound that a lot of mid-'90s death metal has. I like the vocals, which are fun and executed effectively, but they're not enough to carry the songs on their own. When I listen to this album, it generally sort of plays in the background while I occasionally notice something fun going on. I generally can't even tell when the tracks change.

That being said, all the good things about it are matters of degree as well: I like the style of fun grind they play, even though I generally prefer my goregrind more 'serious'. While the band repeats itself a lot, what they're repeating is pretty genuinely good, with solid riffing, vocals, and percussion. It feels very oldschool throughout, and in a good way, with all the spirit of early goregrind behind it. It's the sort of album you appreciate as much or more for the performance than for the music itself; what the latter lacks in inspiration it makes up for in conviction, and the headbanging playing does do a lot to smooth over some of the release's weaker points. Overall, 'Anatomical Inferno' isn't a mandatory release for anyone but Haemorrhage fans, but it is recommended for people to give a listen to it for those who are interested in one of the most consistently unique and solid bands of the goregrind scene. It's hardly going to disappoint, even if it doesn't really amaze you.