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HEMATOID
Liminal Atrophy

Iron Fortress (2024)
Rating: 7/10

With enough Carcass inspired medical monstrosities than you can shake a bloody scalpel at, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based trio Hematoid returns from the morgue with their debut full-length platter of splatter.

This is some wholesome gore noise right from the off as ‘Shrieking Affliction’ pulsates and throbs as the tin can percussion and twisted, fetid riffs contort and grind with ghoulish glee. Admittedly not as disgusting as I imagined, although then again there are a lot of hideous bands doing this type of thing, but Hematoid provide some superbly stodgy mid-paced grooves. ‘Gnashing’ begins mid-tempo but then bleeds into an almost thrashy groove laced by the standard guttural coughs of bass player Dylan Ergott.

Liminal Atrophy, although relatively short, isn’t overly demented or squishy in design. In fact, it unravels like a basic 2000s death metal outing to the point of grinding with a no frills passion as ‘Changeling (The Price)’ and ‘Sanguine Body Farm’ spew up more mid-tempo butchery. There are hints of Mortician in the simplistic fermented frameworks, especially on the slower designs, while at their fastest (‘Reflected Detestation’ and ‘Fetid Larval Substrate’) Hematoid is still a well controlled animal of gnashing instrumentation and ghastly mashed slogging.

So many bands of this ilk have passed, many of which have drowned in their own musical pus, but because the Iron Fortress roster is so well endowed I see this album getting more credit than it probably deserves. However, it’s still a decent heap of extremity. My favourite track, ‘Hominal Automation’, boasts a snarling yet dragging tempo led by its percussive clattering.

As a full-length death metal album in 2024, Hematoid’s repulsive ramble is more a case of stable condition rather than critical or crazed.

Neil Arnold

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