Seminal Vampires and Maggot Men

You gotta love this band for doing a great job mixing more punk and death metal with a lot of humor. There's some laugh out loud moments especially coming from guitarist Danny Corrales who attempts to sing lead on a few songs. His voice is hilariously funny he sounds like he's yelling uncontrollably. I laugh every time he opens his mouth. I like how he sounds on 'I Don't Give A Fuck' he just spews the words out very fast and chaotic. He sounds the same on 'Freak Fuck Fest' too it's just funny shit that he yells out.

The production on this album was actually better than their demos. It's still dirty though don't be put off by that...Abscess always favored a dirty recording that's the way they liked it. You've got a lot of shorter songs on this LP most of them are under 2 minutes. A lot of grind moments on these songs not a lot of slower sections. 'Fatfire' is one of my favorites because it's a slower song and you can hear the Autopsy sound in this particular song I think it's great to hear that. The punk influence is still heavy on most of these songs especially on 'I'm Gonna Mow You Down' which sounds like a Ramones song absolutely. Chris Reifert still comes up with some crazy vocals once again he just never ceases to amaze me. His voice has it's own identity no doubt.

Guitarist Clint Bower does some great lead vocals once again. My favorite one that he sings is 'Patient Zero'. It's pretty fast and he has that trademark high pitched raspy vocal that works for him. All of the band members take turns singing backups on a lot of the songs so you have those catchy choruses that you're going to remember. They also threw in a rerecorded version of 'The Scent Of Shit' from their first album in which all four members sing the whole song together. It's funny to hear that.

Well if you like some more punk filled death metal with some funny vocals and gory lyrics this is it. A lot of catchy songs on here even though they're short you'll be humming those riffs easily. One of the best songs is 'Dirty Little Brats' for some reason it's got the catchiest riff and it always stays in my head. That's what I like about this band they can write catchy but brutal death metal...even if it's punky and has some hardcore flavor in it. This is a great album and like I said funny and crazy too. And if you're the kind of person who is put off by profanity you'll definitely be offended by this album 1000 percent. Many times you'll be hearing the word fuck spewing out of all the members when they sing. Don't play it for your kids just to let you know!!

Abscess apparently pulled a Sleep and wasted all the money they were given for recording this record, and it shows because it sounds like shit. The guitar tone is flaccid and have distorted with the bass sort of idly bouncing underneath it, the drums get buried under the (admittedly decently recorded) vocals with the snare rendered almost totally inaudible half the time, and it seems like most of this was done in one take (which would make sense seeing as it was recorded and mixed in 24 hours) because the band members are only halfway in time with each other throughout most of it. Granted, none of this is particularly unusual for Abscess, but it's sure as hell a painful listen most of the time.

Otherwise, it's just Abscess doing what Abscess does: punky oldschool death metal with a pinch of doom here and there. Influence from 'Shitfun'-era Autopsy is readily apparent, as is a good bit of Impetigo, particularly in the vocal department, where Reifert is more frantic and yelping than ever. The tracks are still short, noisy, and filled with punk beats and riffs alongside sludgy death metal groove. It's pretty cool for a while, but as usual it gets tiring about halfway through the album since all the songs are pretty much the same except for what PARTICULAR three-chord pattern dominates track 52. The slow, nasty tracks like 'Global Doom' are pretty cool and break up the uptempo tracks which cover most of the release, which helps ease the monotony a bit.

It's a fun album, but I can only listen to a bit of it before I get bored. Call me ADD, but the lack of variation really only works in ambient stuff for me, and punk/death metal isn't quite Burzum enough to me. It's still pretty cool and fun though and I'd recommend people looking for something brutal but still catchy and listenable give it a try. For god's sake, Reifert needs to eat too.

This CD is a very good, little death metal album. Why little? Because it doesn't have the greatness of Autopsy, nor even the intention to be that great. It just tries to be a good, fun death album, and it accomplishes its mission.

The best of the album are the punk elements. Some clean vocals, simple riffs, short songs. It makes this release a lot of fun. And some of the tracks are catchy and powerful, like Worm Sty Infection, Gonna Mow You Down and The Scent Of Shit to mention the better ones. And ALL of the solos are amazing. And it's not like I'm a guitar freak or anything like that, but the solos are totally functional with the songs and they always help the atmosphere of the track.

There's a few filler, of course, this is no masterpiece. But the aftemath is possitive to me.

So if you're expecting a ground-breaking, mind-blowing record, you better stick to the first 2 Autopsy Full-Lenghts, but if otherwise, you wanna listen to a good album of simplistic Death Metal, with no more pretentions that being a nice album, I'm pretty sure you'll dig this one. (Fans of clear sound, technical Death Metal stay awat at all costs).