From Crotch to Crown

Slowly awakening, tied up to hands and feet, blindfolded. Someone is closing in, chains rattle, terror spreads within, the end is near, but before that, horror and pain, endlessly. The soundtrack to your torment is signed and stamped by Prostitute Disfigurement. On their early work, particularly ‘Deeds of Derangement’ and ‘Left in Grisly Fashion’, those feelings were channelled through brutal riffs with a slight melodic and thrashy vibe accompanied by frantic drumming and the most low key guttural vocals you can imagine. All weaved together into melody driven straightforward, well as straightforward as brutal death metal gets, tunes destined to be hits, well as much a hit as a death metal tune can ever be.

In their latter works, including their latest torture symphony ‘From Crotch to Crown’, much of that identity has been discarded for a more orthodox sound. Make no mistake, the feeling of torment and agony is still effectively conjured but this album definitely has a more Cannibal Corpse and Severe Torture vibe to it, with a hint of Suffocation. The insane vocals were gone already on ‘Descendants of Depravity’ for a more conventional death metal approach, think Corpsegrinder from Cannibal Corpse, and this trend continues on ‘From Crotch to Crown’ even if some lower registers sometimes are reached, but nowhere near those of the old offerings.

What has been lost in hit-destined straightforward tunes with melodic vibes in the guitar play has however been replaced by dynamics. The identity of old is still present from time to time but has been cut out with variation in riff style, slight tempo changes in the mainly up-tempo tunes and some fairly technical episodes giving a new dynamic range to the bands arsenal. The addition of two new guitarists to the stable has also brought two distinct solo styles, one following the screeching Slayer-esque style and the other blasting out pure heavy metal solos adding another dimension to the band’s sound.

The dynamic sound is well balanced in the massive production giving room for all components. It avoids becoming a temptingly messy wall-of-sound, but still never compromises with the brutality or the feeling of being trapped in your everyday torture chamber. The drums especially, to the liking of yours truly, are given room to do its tormenting deeds. The drumming really is quite excellent on this one.

However, despite a well executed album rich with dynamic passages I still find myself enjoying the straightforward melody-driven parts of ‘From Crotch to Crown’ the most. It is a very good album, but not amazing like ‘Deeds of Derangement’. The Prostitute Disfigurement of today are on the other hand verging to something great and a step towards their own past might very well in the future give us the ultimate sound of torment, agony and longing for the inevitable end.


Originally written for www.metalcovenant.com

From Crotch to Crown might arguably be the best death metal album title I've spied in some time, so coupled with the retro torture chamber aesthetics of the cover artwork, I was already somewhat sold on the experience before even hearing a lick. Fortunate then that Prostitute Disfigurement's initial reunion offering is just as good as it looks, an exercise in annihilation which takes all of about four minutes to induce whiplash, gonorrhea and a number of other conditions with which to remember it. That's not to imply that it's a 'classic for the ages', or that it's particularly unique in its field, but these Dutchmen have long settled into that moderation of brutality and technicality in which groups like Severe Torture and Cannibal Corpse have settled. Intense, violent songwriting takes the fore, while excess arpeggio noodling wankery is exorcised in favor of evil, surgical harmony spikes that recount Pestilence's Mallevs Maleficarvm, and the utter simplicity and derivation of much of today's nostalgic death metal is eschewed for speed, strength and punishment.

No, it's not the first or last time that a record of this sort will rip your face off, but what's important is that it RIPS YOUR FACE OFF. Down to the bone, and in some cases, beneath. The drums and guitars bounce back and forth between accelerated, busy blasts ("Only Taste for Decay"), which seem like the natural upgrade to classic Morbid Angel (Altars of Madness/Covenant) in their overall riffiness; and a number of active mid-paced progressions which seem just as immaculately designed to destroy. The rhythm guitars are broiling with notation, flying all over the place and there's really not a moment among the 41 here that I found myself in any way bored (exhausted, maybe). Not to mention, the leads feel vibrant and carefully designed to excite and titillate rather than just zip past with atonal chaos. Vocally, there are a lot of callbacks here to classic Deicide, largely through the pairing of blunt growls and rancid snarls, occasionally accented by clinical samples or horrific screams culled from the same gore/horror sources that have long inspired this act. The drums are like being pelted with a million bricks in succession, only they avoid the face and ears so you can still discern every painful impact. Bass-lines have a springy, agile presence but aren't necessarily the most robust I've heard, and yet so much else is happening that you might not even notice.

Lyrics are efficaciously disgusting in tunes like "Crowned in Entrails", which recount visceral acts that I do not feel comfortable in repeating, and the way this thing is produced is like the mating of a rhinoceros and a helicopter, constant staccato bludgeoning dowsed in dense riffing constructions that trample the shit out of you. Really, the only 'crime' about this would be that it's an amalgamation of another records that predate it, and lacks the inherent, distinctive characteristics that defined them as they arrived through and beyond the 90s, but for someone seeking out a monstrous, misogynistic splatterfest of both muscle and musicality, it's nothing at all to frown down upon. Sort of like those hi-definition Texas Chainsaw sequel/prequel flicks in how it re-imagines the spectacle of its inspirations, only From Crotch to Crown is much more consistent, concussive and enjoyable. I know this: if you hold records like Bloodthirst, None So Vile, Misanthropic Carnage, Effigy of the Forgotten, or anything by Lividity, Gorgasm, Deeds of Flesh and Mortal Decay in high regard, then this has plenty of bang for the buck, and I had just (if not more) fun listening through this as I did Deeds of Derangement, Left in Grisly Fashion, etc. Maybe not the most memorable of its class, but this is nonetheless pretty top shelf, trauma-inducing torture porn for the sadistic, masochistic and depraved. Worth the six year wait.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com