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SARCOUGHAGUS
Delusions Of The Sick

Maggot Stomp (2021)
Rating: 8/10

I love the band name but was unsure as to whether to dive into a debut record by a band described as “stoner death metal”! But here we are, wading knee deep in that cover art and sucking up the quagmire gore of this Cleveland, Ohio-based unit who come equipped with eight examples of foul-smelling death metal dirges, and yes, this is very much pungent death metal.

The opening strains of ‘Force Fed’, particularly those thudding drums, evoke images of some rank, moss coated creature heaving its arse from its stinking pit. In a sense, it’s a release typical of the Maggot Stomp roster; guttural, gurgling, deep, heavy and sick to its very core of gore.

Sarcoughagus is quite simply another relatively new death metal act to keep a bloodshot eye on. When you’re plagued by faster segments you are still buried in the mud of this fetid design.

‘Self-Induced Lobotomy’ begins slow and manky before the pace quickens. Nate Frey’s vocal style is deep, chesty and booming, emerging from the cracks like some gush of rancid phlegm and vomit. One cannot ignore the gouging thuds of drummer Nicholas Camiola though. This guy breaks bones on his skins, while the bass of Ryan Weseling is just a sickening flurry of infected bubbling.

‘Exsanguination’, ‘Primal Being’ and the trudging mucous might of ‘Cannibalistic Search Party’ quake rhythmically, fusing slower, aching strategies before mouldy passages of speed emerge. In whatever option they chose, the band remains ultra-heavy, choking on its own toxic fumes as swampy chords run like congested and congealed streams of boggyness.

‘Fantasizing Sanity’ is rank and decrepit, slowly seeping and gaseous with its mesmeric guitar sound and those morbid skin thuds, while ‘Delusional Reality’ is utterly monolithic and doom-laden, and proof again that this band can churn so deeply. In fact, this is a hard record to rest from – the foul fumes just draw me in and create green, hazy layers of nauseating smoke before another lumbering entity emerges and drags me into the mouth of the being on the cover artwork.

With so many top-notch death metal bands around, Sarcoughagus is another crushing conundrum to add to the pack. This is a fine debut album to salivate over.

Neil Arnold

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