Embalmed Madness

Nerlich

Nihilistic Holocaust Records has busted out a 3 Way Split featuring Nerlich, Decoherence, and Gorgasm (France). As soon as I saw the title I got impression that this disc was gonna contain some good old fashioned Goregrind. But that just was not the case, damn it.

First up is Nerlich, who come out of Finland. This band originally started in 2002 under the name Devastation Machine, then Disease before settling on Nerlich. After releasing a couple of demo’s they got onboard for the 2005 Embalmed Madness Split.

This band reminds me of a cross between Bolt Thrower and Entombed with some Pestilence thrown in for good measure. The music has an Old School sound with a churning guitar riff sound reminiscent of “The 4th Crusade” era Bolt Thrower. The bass sound is rolling rambunctious stuff that almost steals the show from the rest of the instruments. Hell, the fourth song “Dissolve the Bodies,” even has a cool bass solo that kicks in at 1:12. Overall this is a solid 5 song Doom/Death Metal effort that is a good for wetting your appetite prior to a night watching the fights.

From what I understand reading these guys website they just completed a full length debut consisting of 8 tracks. Hopefully they find a label will to put their music into the underground fold.

Decoherence

This is about the longest 3 song demo I have ever had to sit through, and I heard it twice just to make sure it was the music that was making me nauseous. If this is Brutal Death Metal then I’m a noble laureate for writing reviews on Metal. This is nothing more than a few deep vocal barfs mixed with an annoying hardcore shout similar to something a bit grungier than Hatebreed. The guitar is a pathetic mix of riffs that I heard much better played by Lust of Decay. And the rest of the music as a whole is better left un-described only for the fact that it is dull and uninspired. These guys seriously give the French Metal scene a bad name.


Gorgasm (France)

After getting through Decoherence this was my last hope for finding something worth listening to on this disc other than Nerlich. It seems I was destined to be grossly disappointed. Here is what these guys sound like: Take the riffs and technicality of Decapitated, Necrophagist, and some solo’s from Slayer, Metallica, and a couple of pussy Power Metal bands like Edguy and Dragonforce and meld them together. Then slow it all down and make it sloppy with a couple of wanna-be-tough brutal grunts for vocals and you got this slab of rubbish. If I was 10 years old I might find this music intimidating for about 5 seconds. Then I would take it out of my disc player and use it as a coaster.