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NAILGUN MASSACRE
Boned, Boxed And Buried

Xtreem Music (2015)
Rating: 7.5/10

Will the day ever come when horror-obsessed death metal stops being entertaining? Probably not, and that’s why Nailgun Massacre is the latest troupe to scrape the barrel of bones in search of their own decrepit sound of slurry. Boned, Boxed And Buried is the second ooze of death metal discharge from a band which formed in 2010 out of Leiden in the Netherlands.

Considering their origin and over the top moniker, I wasn’t sure what style of extreme metal this quintet would play, but there’s an interesting mix throughout here as Nailgun Massacre takes some of the best bits from the likes of the more expected Asphyx, and also Autopsy, Cannibal Corpse and Abscess.

The album comes in 11 flesh-ripping segments, and rarely runs out of ideas due to its varying influences. Initially, we get a gloom-soaked chugginess hinting at the likes of Autopsy, particularly with the vocal burps of Corpsechucker. Musically, it’s extremely catchy; the rotten riffs are served up on a filthy platter by Meataxe and Bonesaw who – believe it or not – has featured for fellow gore-hounds Abscess and one of my favourite death metal acts in Grand Supreme Blood Court.

With the opening track ‘Where’s The Head?’ one will find themselves wallowing in a gloomy crawlspace of sound where foetid solos eat their way through meaty riffs, but I’d be interested to see what people make of the two vocal styles. Many death metal fans often prefer their vocalists to stick to one dominant style, however this is where the Asphyx / Autopsy marrying comes to the fore but it’s still a joyous ride into the depraved side of what is entertaining gore metal.

As I flick through each choice cut on this opus I’m rewarded by a number of juicy joints of decomposing meat, and each time I expect to get bored the slumber never comes – instead, I’m thrown into a blender and happy to be part of an old school visit that is as putrid as it is fun.

The title track weighs in with a mournful albeit predictable chord of misery before the demented crew sets off on its watery trudge, and oddly the vocals slightly differ again as a gnarly growl mixed with a puking choke. As I said, while the record steals a great deal from the more dehydrated vocal style of Asphyx, it revels more so in that ability to slot itself alongside the sickening slurry of Autopsy, Abscess, The Ravenous and Necrophagia just because it’s so duty-bound in its quest for gory delights. I love the slower, chunkier moments where the quintet gives the impression that it’s wading through some soupy fog joined by several comrades of the undead.

The leads howl like starving coyotes on a mist-enshrouded night; the banshee moans bring extra turns of sordid atmosphere to the aforementioned gungy title track, while there’s the faster splodge of the hilariously titled ‘Stinky Stench’ with its punkoid heart and Swedish chainsaw buzz. Another doom-laden anthem is the yawning ‘Meat Locker’ with its brilliant vocal gurgles, and I also suggest you choke on the evil chants of ‘Casket Full Of Fun’ for a diseased dose of death metal charm.

Sure, it’s still very much tongue-in-cheek extremity; after all, who can be offended by a song called ‘I Bury The Hatchet In Your Face’ with its zombie chug, or the haunting dregs of the stark piano instrumental ‘What’s In The Box?’ which makes way for the closing infestation that is ‘Lower Me Down’. Nevertheless, it’s still good old fashioned and often funereal death metal with enough quality and horror to delight those with a fetish for gore.

Neil Arnold

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