Zombie

My only encounter with Corpsickle previous to Zombie was their split with Roadside Burial, a split I quickly buried somewhere in my flooded shelves of CDs. It’s safe to say I really didn’t enjoy the split, and found both writing and execution to almost outright suck. So I didn’t exactly get ecstatic when this promo landed in my mailbox. It’s the debut album by this lot, recorded back in ´06 and ´07, but not released until 2010. Not sure why it took so long, but here we finally have it.

As soon as the intro ends and Toxic spill takes over I get this déjà vu feeling, and instantly all the dreadful memories of the previously mentioned split comes back to me. Oh, how abysmal this was. The raggedy-ass drum machine, the burly guitars, the misfired cookie monster growls… It was certain I was in for a sucky 38 minutes.

But as Zombies come suddenly offered a very enjoyable guitar lead, accompanied by a pummeling and blazing bass drum, I started taking note of the positive parts of the music. We are the dead continues on with an ever slicker guitar lead, and this time a really arse-shredding one. Now what the hell was going on, was I about to revise my earlier statement about how horrific this album is? It seems so. And as Necrophilia gets going I’m struck by a clean female voice backing up the burly growls, and behind it there’s once again enjoyable riffing. It works surprisingly well, and instead of deterring me with the realization Corpsickle’s just not serious about their music, I just found it charming.

The closest I could come in comparison would be Mortician, just for the same type of heavy-as-shit riffing and guitar sound, the uncompromising blasting and burly vocals. But unlike said band this lot actually slow things down every once in a while and offer quite a lot of variation in song structure. Besides that, this isn’t all the way brutal death metal, and I’d say it’s almost half n half goregrind, a bit like including a dose of both Lymphatic Phlegm and earlier Gut. All while there’s a base of old school death.

The riffing’s not exactly mind-blowing, but with the numerous wicked leads and occasional ripping section of riffs they do have something to offer the listener. Most of the time it’s the slower moments that really lets this riffing shine, probably ‘cause it’s not buried beneath a wall of hammering drum machine noise. And speaking of which, this is undoubtedly a drum machine, either that or the world’s most triggered drums ever. They claim to have a guy behind the drum kit, but I’m pretty sure they just have a guy behind the programming. Nonetheless it’s only during the most insane speeds that it really bugs me, where the rigidness and lifelessness becomes too overwhelming and in your face. I’m surprised to say I actually do enjoy this, although I’m not really blown away by it. The ‘fuck you all’ attitude that is the core of the album just adds to the atmosphere, just as the horrific cover art does. If you can just get pass the initial impression of lousy sound quality and lame music you’ll actually find that things aren’t as bad as it first seemed. It’s raw, crude, burly, gory death metal, seriously inspired by zombie flicks.

Originally written for My Last Chapter