The Pleasure in Suffering

Putrid Pile's "Collection of Butchery" is a good album with the curse all slam death albums seem to have: not much really goes on. The prejudices against slam certainly aren't unfounded, and Shaun's just as guilty as everyone else. His debut plays just like a Devourment album (to me, that's a good thing.. some of you may disagree), with one track running into another into another. There were enough distinguishable variations to make it worthwhile, but if you listen to the first track you can anticipate the rest of the album.

Putrid Pile, however, dispels some stereotypes with this album. The predictable slams are changed up as Shaun gets better and better with the drum machine and starts writing more diverse material. Here you have songs more like grindcore ("Circlepit Commando"), more death metal ("Rush-Hour Killing Spree"), but still plenty of good slow slams. The slams themselves are given some variation, such as the sick squeal in the opening of "Caged and Awaiting Death" (my personal favorite of the album, if only for the opening of that first slam section.

The guitar tone is more or less the same. There's no dramatically different sound, no facemelting solos, no new equipment.. it's just the same guitars, the same drum machine, the same strange (yet unique) guttural vocals.. but with a clear mark of development and maturity. Putrid Pile's style has evolved, and in my opinion it's certainly for the better.

Pick this up if you're a slam fan, you own Putrid Pile's first album, or are just looking for something with a good balance of slow, heavy drumming and blasts. You will not be disappointed, I assure you.

I would be unfair to say that Putrid Pile's second full-length, 'The Pleasure In Suffering', is exactly the same album as their first. Since I'm feeling charitable, I'll say that it is ESSENTIALLY the same as their first. Never since Bolt Thrower have I heard a more infinitesimal change in style or quality from a death metal band, setting Putrid Pile somewhere in the realm of Cannibal Corpse as far as consistency goes. Aside from the production having gotten louder/clearer/'wider'/more distorted, quite literally nothing has changed at all between the two releases.

'The Pleasure In Suffering', like 'Collection Of Butchery', is the sound of Putrid Pile: fast, gory brutal death metal which employs a blasty more than filly drum machine and lots of tremolo riffs and big held chords, as well as low gurgly vocals and high shrieky vocals. It all sounds very eeeeevil and Death Metal with capital letters. It's very brutal because it's very fast, has extremely thick and bassy production, and is intentionally abrasive in essentially every regard. This is probably what non-metal people think of when they hear the words 'death metal'. It really is just 'Collection Of Butchery' part two. It even has the same number of tracks and a running time that differs by just over half a minute. Really though, did we expect anything more than that? Your enjoyment of this album is directly proportional to your enjoyment of the last one.

I don't know about you, but I'm still starvin' for them baby brains.

Not too many time ago I was looking at a cheap shop for albums that could satisfy my need of death metal, and I saw this CD. I heard a track from it, and knowing that there would not be many chances to buy it elsewhere, I immediately bought it along with Despised Icon and Psycroptic. Well: one of the best spent money.

The artwork is not that great, but introduces well what you are going to hear: nothing but some gorey ass-kicking brutal death metal. This man and his guests provide to give you, song after song, what you ever wanted from a band like this: brutality brought with cathy as hell riffs, gorging growls and screams, and a drum machine which will lead you to headbang over and over, maybe somewhat boring for someone which is not a die hard fan of this stuff, but it is nice to hear even two times in a row.

Vocals are impressive, and you can notice on the booklet that no vocal effects were used, but lyrics are almost impossible to hear, as most of us brutal fans like. There are many guests on vocals that give a bit of variety to the songs (which vary in lenght from 7 seconds to 4 minutes), but never going out the trail of brutality.
Technicality in instruments is not the main point of this album, and it is used only were needed, being a lot of this riffs mid-paced and sometimes "chugga-chugga" and tremolo picked in the blasting parts. Bass is non-existant but it is not so important, considering Putrid Pile is a one man band; drums are programmed well, constaltly double-bassing and filling in the riffs.

If you are looking for something new, get away from this release; this most mid-paced album is solidly rooted in the brutal death metal tradition, reminding a bit of all the most famous cult acts, obviously including Suffocation. Yeah, maybe there are a lot of bands like Putrid Pile out there. But Putrid Pile fucking kicks ass.