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PUTRID FATE
Visions Of Horror

Macho (2023)
Rating: 8/10

Channelling the likes of Mortician, Scottish one-man act Putrid Fate serves up its debut full-length as if it were a slab of festering human meat slapped onto a table of maggots to be consumed by deranged cannibals. Rory MacAulay is one of the talented up and coming musicians within the Scottish scene and who, alongside acts like BrainBath, Rancid Cadaver and Gouger, is responsible for some of the juiciest death metal around right now.

MacAulay came to my attention in 2022 with his decent Feast On Flesh EP; a raw, at times naive yet burgeoning release littered with horror movie samples and driven by a grinding, and at times frantic old school death metal energy. Visions Of Horror follows similar themes to the EP but with extra sludge, slop and congealed brutality as MacAulay takes us on a grisly journey through ten macabre soundtracks, all of which are daubed in that nasty, chunky guitar tone which buzzes like a rotting corpse swarming with hectic flies.

For me, the album really comes into its own on those slow murky numbers, which ooze and fester like a peat bog consisting of hardened bone marrow, soupy vomit, clotted blood and flayed flesh. The melancholic, trudging ‘Living Dead’ and chugging pustular rankness of ‘Dead And Buried’ are prime examples of how MacAulay superbly taps into that gnawing, aching fustiness; also showcased on the mid-section of ‘Final Destination’ which is a gnashing, mid-tempo furnace of putridity.

Elsewhere, there are plenty of faster, more aggressive blasts of grimness such as ‘Confessions Of A Necrophile’ and ‘Wrath’, but all the tracks are quite happy to shift from suffocating slime to pacier outbursts. Everything about this album feels thick, cloying and dense, and I’m always a sucker to hear albums littered with horror movie samples – ‘Freudstein’ and ‘Death By Stereo’, just two examples of such nostalgia and atmosphere.

Although I enjoyed MacAulay’s debut EP there is clearly a marked improvement on this one. When I interviewed him as part of my Scottish death metal scene report (Scottish Sickness) he was fully aware not only of his limitations, but as to how he could better himself with future releases. Visions Of Horror is testimony to Rory’s perseverance and I have to say I’m proud of what he is achieving within the death metal genre. I can’t wait for the next instalment, but for now I’m quite happy chewing on the fat of this heaving heap of entrails.

Neil Arnold

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