Emetic Cult

Ahhhh, Haemorrhage in their early days, before the punky death/grind of the mid-era and the modern death/grind of the newer stuff, there was... the oldschool death/grind of 'Emetic Cult' I guess. It's not like Haemorrhage ever drastically varied their style, they just changed what specific sort of death/grind they did, but anyway, this was their first album and it was a really good one. I thought the punk influences on albums like 'Anatomical Inferno' were kind of cloying, and this is refreshingly restricted in that department, opting for the straightforward Carcass worship we all know and love.

If you know the old Carcass worship sound, you know what this. Haemorrhage has been plugging away at the style for years and years and this is where it all began, with shaky blast beats, gurgling vocals, and deathy grindy punky riffs left and right. It's not dramatically developed music in any sense; the production is good but still amateurish, instrumental performances are off and on in quality, and the songwriting is catchy but far from stellar. There's the usual suspects of tremolo riffs versus those that are more or less chuggy or punky, the occasional d-beat, and a certain noisiness to everything going on.

The songwriting is good. Haemorrhage probably stole 90% of the riffs on this album but it doesn't really matter because they never claimed to be original. The songs are catchy if not particularly memorable on their own and the spastic high/low/everywhere in between vocals are pretty cool. If you were simply told what Haemorrhage sounds like, what you hear in your head would be this album: enthusiastic, unprofessional, and surprisingly good despite its amateurish aims. It's not the sort of music that will convert a power metal fan to the death/grind scene, but it's a fun listen every once in a while. Haemorrhage excels at making short, catchy songs, and this album has fourteen of them for your listening pleasure.

If you like Haemorrhage or Carcassy deathgrind, just buy it already. Then again, if you're in either of those audiences, you probably already own it. By another copy of it anyway, I don't know, get the hell away from me.