There Was Blood Everywhere

Though originally released as an EP in 1995, the preferred version of Embalmer's Relapse debut There Was Blood Everywhere is the mini compilation album two years later. Not because it's magically superior in terms of musical quality, but there's just more of it, the group's 1993 demo Rotting Remains added as a bonus. For one, this is the only version you're likely to find, and second, in terms of production and style, the two are pretty even, with Rotting Remains adding some badly needed dynamic variation to the EP tracks. Still pretty short at around 25 minutes for eight tunes, but it just flows better overall, even if the Ohio brutes still come up short of outstanding (beyond another of my favorite Wes Benscoter covers, of course).

Death metal was already about a decade old at the time this record dropped, but for its time, it's admittedly pretty goddamn extreme and was likely an influence upon countless ensuing acts in the brutal death or goregrind scenes. The blasting beats are legion here, especially in the 1995 material, saturated in this heavily distorted, fat guitar tone which seems at odds with the lighter impact of the snares and the thin kick drum in the mix. But they also churn out these surgery riff progressions that were more harried and vicious than even Cannibal Corpse of the day. The vocals are often the paired up contrast of a ridiculous, bloody, higher pitched rasp like those of a post-castration victim; and a guttural, gurgly, septic voice that it had to be ahead of its time. I don't much enjoy the former, since its exceedingly overbearing and goofy, but where you're just getting that lower, rumbling timbre over the flights of guitars, I feel like the band functioned pretty well. They also incorporate these enormous lurching grooves into a few of the songs that come across like a technical alternative to Godflesh or Bolt Thrower; especially on the Rotting Remains songs like "The Cellar".

On the whole, the production here is pretty muddy, but surprisingly clear enough that you can make all of the visceral details, from the lumpy bass lines to those supersoaked entrails of guitar. A few of the transitions in tracks like "Blood Sucking Freaks" seem cluttered and trampled by the sheer volatility of all the vocals and drums, and a few of the vocal patterns in there are laughable (especially the rasped screams). In addition, I wouldn't call the riffing all that impressive. It's blistering fast and rabid thanks to the tone, but there are no actual songs of note throughout There Was Blood Everywhere that I'd categorize among the better brutal anthems of the 90s. Leads are messy, wild screams that zip over the infernal undercurrent, and the lyrics to most of these tracks are pretty basic, comparable to old Chris Barnes Cannibal Corpse or Mortician. The chord progressions often felt a little bit like an update to Repulsion or Napalm Death of the late 80s, with perhaps a dose of Suffocation's Human Waste for good measure, but painfully few are memorable.

That said, Embalmer, if rather unproductive through the years (they weren't active from 1997-2005), had a fairly explosive take on the form that, with some refinement, might have further established them as one of the chief extremists of the 90s. I can recall some buzz and excitement about the group during this period, along with other sick Midwestern fucks like Lividity and Fleshgrind, but it really didn't pan out due to the band's lack of material and the huge hiatus that interrupted their ascent. There Was Blood Everywhere is certainly the sort of album you can picture people being serial tortured to in some dank, earthen basement without even a proper floor (perfect for the inevitable burial of the remains), but beyond its aggressive visage and primal, repulsive production values, it's just nothing spectacular or even necessarily 'good'.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

You know that local band that you see at almost every death metal show? You know, the one that's been around forever, that hearkens back to the early '90s when they put out their first demo tape. They intimately know all the members of your local scene that went on to labels like Century Media and Nuclear Blast and have connections with just about everyone it seems. But the band themselves never really seems to have gone anywhere; every time you talk to them about what's up they sort of hem and haw about how they're working on a full-length (the same one they've been working on for four years now) and how they've got some interest from some fairly big labels. The album never gets done, they never get signed to a label, and they just end up sitting in their own local scene, legends for never becoming legendary. This is exactly the sort of thing I imagine that Embalmer is.

That's not to say Embalmer's music is especially poor; just that it's clearly the sort of thing that will never go anywhere but this little compilation CD, probably. Embalmer's one of those bands you find on occasion who never really got the memo of how death metal is supposed to sound; they've heard Cannibal Corpse and Deicide and the like, and they're attempting to make music that sounds like those bands, but they don't really know how to go about it, so the result is a very awkward, gangly breed of death-metal-I-guess that's geared to please just about no one in the metal scene. Occasionally a band will come along with a similar inability to replicate a sound and end up being bizarre and brilliant, but Embalmer is really just the former; the music never hits anything even approximating a stride and the band seems as confused about its style as the listener most of the time. It has brief moments where everything comes together, but mostly the music is submersed in the sort of chaos generally reserved for the most underground of goregrind bands.

I would tentatively describe this stuff as being an oldschool death metal version of Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis; it has that Mexican endeavor's strange, dark, off-kilter vibe and sections which seem almost improvised they're so noisy and weird, but Embalmer's music is firmly rooted within the bounds of (attempted) death metal rather than goregrind. The production is pretty awful throughout this CD, screechy and thin in the guitar department and rickety in the drums, and during the blasting and tremolo sections everything screeches over everything else, removing all coherence from already mostly incoherent music. You can't really tell what's going on when the band goes faster than a thrash beat, and I'm not entirely sure if all the members are playing on time with each other at those parts; everything seems to waver in and out like a strobe light. Performances during the slower parts are a bit more even but even then have a sort of demo-level hesitance about them which is weird to hear.

It's relatively clear that Embalmer is shooting for a darker, murkier, more atmospheric variety of death metal, influenced here and there by bands such as Autopsy or Obituary, and it's sort of unintentionally realized through the questionable competence of the songwriters themselves. The music has an almost unintentionally menacing quality created from the dichotomy of the chaotic and weird blasting sections and the sudden drops to loping thrash and power chord configurations. Due to the production, it's not nearly as riffy as it tries to be, so a lot of your attention ends up getting focused on everything occurring as layers of noise, like you're perpetually listening to the music at moderate volume while driving on the highway: you can hear the guitars and drums and vocals, but none of them seem to be articulating anything in particular.

I can't say that I really like this CD, and listening to it, even with its short running time, is a kind of laborious process that I look at as work more than music. On the other hand, nothing else sounds quite like it and I have to give them credit for crafting something so nightmarish even if they did it completely unintentionally. This isn't something I can really recommend to death metal fans, nor can I recommend it to experimental or avant-garde focused listeners: I actually have to recommend this to those who love noisy and bizarre grind, because they're the only people who will likely find this appealing in any way. Death metal for noisemongers? Maybe so.

I don't even know where to begin here. Let's get one thing out of the way: the individuals behind this fucked up album are not normal upstairs. This is one of the most deranged, disturbing albums I have ever come across, and that's saying a lot considering the wide spectrum of metal that has existed at one point or another. Have you ever had a nightmare where you were the victim of some psychopathic serial killer, strapped down helpless in a shack somewhere far from civilization, about to be tortured and killed in a gruesome, unspeakable manner? I swear to god that's what the cover art reminds me of every time I see it -- after the deed has been done, obviously. But the album cover is only the beginning. What lurks beneath is truly sinister.

This album (compilation rather) is pure death/grind with an unhealthy dose of (and here it really is appropriate to say it) madness. First, a quick glance at the song titles will reveal the macabre nature of this recording. These are some great names, without the parody aspect that has befallen most acts in death metal and related genres. The Necro-Filing Cabinet? Blood Sucking Freaks? Bone Box?! (Sounds like something you'd get from Autopsy -- and it's one of the heaviest songs ever). The Cellar?? (This one is eerie in a very subtle way... think about it). Oh yes, this is oldschool. The guitars are downtuned, but back then it wasn't the mallcore thing to do, and given the kind of "music" played here, it only does it more justice. They are very fast in parts, and slow and ultra heavy in others. There are even some solos thrown in here, if you absolutely need to have them. The riffs themselves... fucking crush. This abnormal record is definitely one to headbang to until you can't see anything anymore. The vocals are varied, shifting from the deep death metal growls (again, cookie monster vocals hadn't degenerated into lameness yet when this was made), to screaming that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. As the previous reviewer pointed out, something is not quite sane about the vocalist -- which can only be good in this case. The drums are also excellent, and especially stand out in the doom-ish parts. Unfortunately, they are not equally audible throughout. For example, in the opening title track they are practically nonexistent. The time signature is 4/4, so if you like Meshuggah you might cry when you hear this (although the time signature would be just about the last reason). The production itself is not the greatest, but then again this isn't music that you play at a party. You can use it to kill one though.

Influences? Carcass, Autopsy, and serial killers! This recording instantly renders 95% (and that's a very generous number) of extreme metal harmless. This is fucked up, over-the-top, bloody deathgrind. This would easily be in the upper 90's range in terms of rating, except that there ARE some standard death metal passages which don't really stand out, and especially given the 25-minute span of the compilation it cuts back the minutes of good stuff even more. And the loudness of the drums could use some equalization. When it comes down to it, what I really love about this album is that it gives me a feeling of authenticity. I don't get the impression that a bunch of death metal musicians decided to create art. Instead I feel that some madmen decided to kill someone and write music about it. And it actually sounds good too. This is definitely one of my favorite death metal/grindcore releases, and I don't know if I'll ever find something so sick and hateful yet at the same time catchy and listenable again. Embalmer are lunatics. There was blood everywhere indeed.