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ORGANIC
Carved In Flesh

Testimony (2018)
Rating: 7.5/10

Italian four-piece Organic is a new name on me in spite of being active for five years. These guys like to indulge themselves in a Swedish-style of fetid death metal, although that’s something which confuses me considering their origins. But even so, debut composition Carved In Flesh is a riveting listen if you like fluffed up buzzsaw riffs which sound as if your stylus is clogged with blood.

There are huge grooves abound on this slab, which features nine (11 if you get the limited edition vinyl version) putrid heaps of catchiness that flow from mid-tempo drudgery to fast paced globules of spit. The sound is led astray even further by the phlegm-riddled barks of frontman Max Careri.

In a sense the whole record is summed up by the brace of tracks which open the affair. ‘Suffocate In Blood’ and ‘Shrouded In Darkness’ both match that sketchy and reckless cover art as the likes of classic Entombed and Dismember are given a salivating reworking by way of devilish displays of thrashing, flailing death metal spouts.

‘Suffocate In Blood’ is the expected loose ‘n’ lethal example of that classic Swedish style, except the fact that the vocal chokes have a more, er, choked feeling as they splutter through a mesh of Benni Leiter’s foaming guitar grooves, Lukas Hofer’s intense stick slaps and that formidable bass of Markus Walder.

When the quartet resorts to mid-paced assaults it’s wonderfully catchy, even if a shade derivative; after all there’s only so much you can do with that familiar Swedish mouldiness, and that was already done decades ago. But as ‘Shrouded In Darkness’ begins its unearthly plod and then sprint you can’t but help bang along. And that’s the theme throughout, Organic churning out rancid waves of hideous speed (‘Frozen Meat Medal’, ‘Carved In Flesh’) coupled with those slower, sinister labours which exude the same sort of malevolence and seething angst as the likes of Grave, Asphyx etc.

You basically know what you’re getting from the off here, and there’s no time for pissing around as the band charges headlong into a murky graveyard of ghoulish outbursts. Some of the better chunks on offer are the melancholic doom trudge of ‘Carnal Absolution (Behind The Altar)’ where the crusty combo benefits from being a slower package, steadily building with some truly bone-shuddering dynamics, while ‘Macabre Rites’ is a snappier attack, but still offers a huge churning groove of machine gun fire percussion and all-out hammering in the bass department before the ultra-fast belligerence takes over and we’re somewhat back to type.

Of all the band’s I’ve heard over the last 20 or so years aping this style, Organic do somewhat provide a more rewarding experience with those raw and obnoxious slower passages which leak well into those charred yet rash ‘n’ brash tumbles. It’s good stuff all round, especially if you like that classic sound which battered you senseless all those hazy years ago.

Neil Arnold

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