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Visceral Evisceration > Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh > Reviews
Visceral Evisceration - Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh

Gore Doom/Death! - 90%

Metantoine, August 10th, 2011

This is the band’s only album but nobody should take this as gage of quality. I consider this album as one of the best album the doom/death metal scene has to offer. As original as they are talented, Austria’s Visceral Evisceration deserved a brighter future, but sadly they won’t have one. Incessant Desire For Palatable Flesh is truly an hidden gem of the 90‘s death metal scene.

I think as good as this band is, it didn’t reach his public. While being in the doom/death scene, the gore lyrics and theme didn’t fit as well as the romantic approach of the genre tenors like My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost. Just looking at the album art gives a false impression of the album’s music in my opinion. While the lyrics are good in their genre, they would be more at ease on a Cannibal Corpse record. The musical sophistication would demand a more poetic avenue. Being poetic about gynecologists and menstrual blood is something cool, but I would prefer a more subtle thematic. Lyrics like: ¨Genital Dinner with knife and fork¨ feels somewhat immature for this album. But, it gives the band some originality their genre brothers don’t have.

The music is a bit more inclined towards death metal than My Dying Bride. Imagine Dark Tranquility’s seminal album ¨The Gallery¨ with more doom and mid-paced riffs. It's melodic so don’t expect something like Winter, maybe Sorrow - Hatred and Disgust would be a better guess. The vocals are a mix of of half growled vocals interchanged with harsher ones, also some operatic female vocals adds a nice Gothic feel. Their inclusion are more natural than most of the female vocals on Cradle of Filth. It doesn't feel like an unnecessary break from the heavy music and extreme vocals.

Almost each song on the album needs time to start, a good example of this would be ¨Tender Flesh... On The Bier¨ which is starting with an atmospheric piano and keys intro. This song have all the elements of a great doom/death song but talks about cannibalism and murders, which is something I found a bit inappropriate for the music, like I said before. The guitar leads are gorgeous and aren't so far from the Sweden Melodeath scene. Just listen to the opening riff of ¨Chewing Female Genital Parts¨ (quite a song title). You don’t find many guitar solos on Incessant Desire...but the mid paced leads make up for them. The small solo in the first track fits nicely. Some parts of the album reminds me of the first album of Cathedral. It’s sorrowful but doesn't feel too depressed. The drums are quite nice while not going on the blastbeat extreme (check out the first track too). But this is a style of music that I think should be taken as a whole. It's not overly technical and rely more on atmosphere.

There's bands who only can do one awesome record and collapse afterward (in mediocrity or because of a band split). I’m looking at you Disillusion - Back to Times of Splendor! Visceral Evisceration is one of those bands. Highly recommended for fans of doom/death metal who are looking for something different who isn't forgetting ¨death¨ in their metal. Just don’t await emotional and romantic lyrics. This is gory doom/death!

Genuine effort, or parody of doom metal? - 85%

Apatheria, August 16th, 2009

Imagine, if you will: you're at a standard record store. You’re browsing the used CD’s section to see if you can snag any rare metal albums, because the only thing they have in the metal section is metalcore and nu-metal shlock. You spot an album, bearing the name “Visceral Evisceration”. You’re already thinking, “Hmm...never heard of this grindcore band before.” You take a closer look. It sports a fairly generic grindcore album cover: a large meat grinder caked with blood, with a woman’s legs sticking out of the machine. Her upper half is already grinded up and protruding messily from the meat grinder’s spout. Glancing at the track names will reveal more typical grindcore fare: “Knee Deep in Blood I Wade”, “Chewing Female Genital Parts”, “Gangling Menstrual Blood Broth for Supper”, etc. At this point it seems fairly obvious that this is going to be a standard grindcore album, with lyrics drenched in gore, hyper-fast guitar riffing, and blasting drum beats.

It’s only five bucks, so you figure, hey...why not? After purchasing it and returning home, you pop it into the stereo, expecting brutal grindcore to bowl you over. And what’s the first thing you hear? Extremely atmospheric death/doom with mournful riffs, sorrowful male vocals, and operatic female vocals. You eject the album to make sure it bears the proper name, thinking that someone accidentally placed the wrong album in the case. Sure enough, it’s the correct album. Just what exactly is going on here? Pure genius, that’s what.

I was already familiar with Visceral Evisceration’s style of music before I played the album, so I wasn’t surprised by the complete clash of style and imagery. I can only imagine how amazing the previously described scenario would be, but I'm sure it has happened to a few lucky folks. I can only imagine their surprise. In fact, I bet you were expecting a grindcore review when you clicked on this link.

Lyrically, Visceral Evisceration is indeed your standard grindcore fare. Musically however, Visceral Evisceration is like an over-the-top version of UK death/doom greats Paradise Lost. The riffs sometimes head into the realm of pure cheese, with the opening riff to “Chewing Female Genital Parts” being especially notable in that department. In addition, there are some absurdly romantic instrumental sections (the opening of “At the Epicurean Gynaecologist” is...beyond description.) The male vocals alternate between standard doom metal grunts, and wailing, mournful vocals often found in gothic doom bands. You know, the type of male vocals that are usually employed when singing about drowning in tears, the loss of love, etc. Only here, the vocalist reaches the most mournful of tones when he’s singing about an insane doctor tearing a baby out of a woman’s womb and eating it. The female vocals are undoubtedly the best instance of comedy on the album, her voice soaring beautifully over the music as she sings about crushing babies with hammers. In fact, I often wonder if this entire album is meant to be a comic parody of the doom genre.

A genuine effort, or a satire of death/doom? Hard to tell frankly, but this album stands as one of the most unique entries into the wonderful death/doom genre.

Originally written for http://circleofdestruction.net/wp/

The Land of Pleasures Unattainable - 95%

elmet, June 14th, 2008

What we have here is a surpassing epicurean beauty that outshines any of its rare kind, taking us on a nocturnal journey wandering blissfully through the realms of the necrophilia. For those who have a poetic discrimination, the highly peculiar lyrics can be best forgotten and thrown away never to be found again. As for the music it may sound dull at times. Yet the very perfect combination of the two results in an aura that fills me with sensations hard to express. No doubt it’s the product of some bizarre and fanciful minds occupied with the overwhelming wonder of the perverse, a tale that is woven with the most intrinsic worth not to appeal to the heart of every man. It’s not of those albums you can listen too often but when you do it surely and truly gets you in its grasp. For example the first two songs “(I Am) Enamoured of Dead Bodies” and “At the Epicurean Gyneacologist” alone will be enough to a send sheer visceral excitement down your spine. “Chewing Female Genital Parts” and “Tender Flesh... on the Bier” would be my other favorites here.

I guarantee you that the female singer’s soul purifying voice, alas not heard much, will reach the innermost recesses of your being as if sprung up from the most tantalizing imaginations of the mind. Whereas the same can not be said of the death vocals that is cliché ridden style with a bit of immature feel, though full of emotions. But be sure this can be easily overlooked when combined with the doom metal riffs that are fucking awesome most of the time.

High and low, I’ve been rummaging for this kind of music for so long but slowly gather the strength to admit that may never again enjoy the likes of it. It’s not hard to see why this kind of music will never reach a general recognition, but for the lovers of the sui generis metal, this little piece of music will remain as one of the most extraordinary album, a celestial beauty unknown to the known world, and its creators will certainly stand as one of the few really creative minds of its kind. Don’t let lyrics put you off, for I completely agree with Sternodox’s astonishment about juxtaposition of the colossal musical beauty and the universal pandemonium of the lyrics, but isn’t there a thin line between genius and insanity after all, a marriage between heaven and hell?... Give it a chance, because you will eventually discover a rewarding shrine of ultimate doom forged in the land of pleasures unattainable.

The Ultimate Doom Oddity - 95%

Sternodox, May 17th, 2005

Although Visceral Evisceration probably didn't have access to the same medical pathology textbooks Carcass did, the lyrical spirit is the same. Primarily interested in dismemberment, cannibalism, rape and more dismemberment, VE can barely be distinguished from Cannibal Corpse, Vomitory or the aforementioned Carcass in their early, glory days.

If one only reads the lyric sheet and never listens to the music, that is.

This is one of the oddest, most compelling and most hauntingly beautiful metal recordings I've ever encountered. Simply put, this is exquisite Doom Metal in the finest musical tradition of Thergothon and dISEMBOWELMENT. Slow coursing riffs fleshed out with crystalline lead guitar, acrobatic drumming, clean and growled male vocals, and one of the most arresting and gorgeously throated female vocalists extant, mesh to create an enticing atmosphere of paradoxical beauty. One can easily appreciate this album on a purely musical level since the Austrian band's vocalists sing with such heavy accents that the lyrics are quite difficult to discern, at least to American ears.

How can one even reconcile the juxtaposition of such tremendous Doom beauty with the morbid overload of grotesque imagery that graces this band's words? In the end, there is no reconciliation possible. Like the art of Picabia or the noise constructs of Stockhausen, one must simply experience this band and recognize that they forged their own way and then bulldozed the results to obliteration so that nobody could ever follow their demented path. Certainly I've never heard another band anything like this.

This one has everything the Doom aficionado could ask for. It's slow. It's heavy. It's plodding. It's melodic. And it's filled with inventive surprises. Check out the Jimi Hendrix throwback guitar hammer-ons after the second verse of "(I Am) Enamored of Dead Bodies." Those few seconds alone make this band a worthwhile discovery. The opening riff to "Chewing Female Genital Parts" belongs in the pantheon of great metal intros. That song, one of the album's finest, is a sludge-besmirched bent-string monster of Sabbath worship that begs the question, "What hath Iommi wrought?" And ending the song by having the angelic female vocalist trill lines like "Smell of cooked, simmered flesh/Serving her for dessert, garnished with bacon" ... well, what can one even say?

Possibly the most disturbing bit on the album occurs during the song "Tender Flesh ... On The Bier," when the female vocalist (who is not named on this release as far as I could tell) sings "Provided with surgical instruments/Exquisite supper of excrements" in a bizarre, warbling vocal style sounding for all the world like a demented Greek chorus.

The one riff that will capture the awe and amazement of fans from Sabbath to Winter occurs in the song, "Knee-Deep In Blood I Wade." Only four lines of lyrics embellish this swirling miasma of down-tuned six-string wonderment. It's essentially an instrumental that allows the entire band to show their stuff. And show it they do!

This album was released in 1994 but can still be found in its original incarnation if one looks hard enough. It has been re-released by Napalm Records with slightly altered cover art. Either version is highly worthwhile tracking down. If you want to hear something that is truly different, this is the release for you.

Overlooked classic doom metal - 94%

Spawnhorde, September 28th, 2004

Top FUCKING notch melodic death/doom with some fast grindier pieces is what we have here...and holy shit is it underrated and overlooked. I've been to lots of doom websites and other stuff, but not many times has this album been mentioned. Well, here I am to say it, this is a motherfucking classic slab of depressive doom metal.

We start things off with the track '(I Am) Enamoured of Dead Bodies'...a nice scream and one of the best "emotional" sounding riffs on the album (also one of the best). If this is your first time hearing this band, you will be turned off by the weird time changes and odd vocals, but you'll get used to it and see the true beauty within. What do I mean by odd vocals? There are 3 kinds here, actually: gruff deathy male vocals, operatic male vocals, and operatic female (!) vocals. The female vocals are haunting and disturbing, and they definitely add to the appeal of the album. It's also amusing to the immature one in all of us to hear a women sing about tongue-in-cheek gore over a seriously depressing background riff. This track lasts for a hefty eight and a half minutes, but it never gets boring (and if you don't like doom, you probably won't like this, except maybe for the crazy gore shit).

The album goes through some great ups and downs. The well placed and memorable instrumental track, Muse Perverse, for example is a pretty good break from the long songs.

These songs never really make full grind speed or sound, though, which is something I would have loved to see implemented. Having really fucking fast blasts would have been a cool (if not really unappealing to half the fanbase of the genre of doom) at times, but this is nearly flawless in its execution. The production oozes heaviness, the bass is always right there, and the riffs are some of the most memorable I've heard in a doom band (see the beginning of 'Chewing Female Genital Parts' for an amazing riff).

Overall, if you are a doom fan looking for something different, or just really want to listen to soem fucking awesome music, get this by means of download or purchase (it is semi-hard to find).