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GROTESQUERIES
Haunted Mausoleum EP

Caligari (2022)
Rating: 8/10

Grim riffs aplenty arise in this three-track EP from the hideous manifestation known as Grotesqueries. The Boston, Massachusetts-based combo are the brainchild of former Garrotted and Black Mass drummer Yianni Tranxidis, who on this debut offering is joined by Michael Buonomo (vocals, Morgued), Brendan O’Hare (guitar, Black Mass) and John Rainis (bass, Wodar).

Imagine a horrific blend of a filthier Morbid Angel with dashes of Swedish deathliness and hints of gore-soaked Carcass, and that’s where Haunted Mausoleum comes in. As releases go this is one sodden blanket of dense, cavernous and above all, gnashing nastiness featuring macabre vocal expressions and a general feel of being lapped up by thick tidal waves of evil and morbidity.

Opening track ‘Flesh Prison’ sets the scene as a black torrent of rolling blubber where twisted riffs exist within those murky tirades. And the theme continues with ‘From Skin Into The Sin’ and the wonderfully titled ‘Gortician’, so one can imagine the musical compositions within as the band constructs massive, chugging frenzies which most importantly feature a devastating percussive attack rather than resorting to programming.

Each track blends sewage-coated chugging with faster, rancid passages where hints of classic Gorguts seep from the orifices of every rhythmic pulse. But fans of contemporary death metal crushing like Tomb Mold will also find much to savour here amongst the squalid, perverse angles and riff-heavy yet squalid catchiness. The frequent changes of pace will keep you on your toes, and through its chunky, gore-obsessed dynamics there’s a real sense of orderly construction here without ever being complex in the slightest.

One can only succumb to the choppiness of this wretched composition as ‘Gortician’ raises the dead with its lumbering, doomy segments while washing them back to their graves with those blasts of maniacal speed. It’s all here; ghastly sprays of sordid, demented extremity with which to wade through at your peril.

The death metal genre, for all its sickening brilliance, continues to provide new surprises, and this is another one of them. A full-length release cannot come quick enough.

Neil Arnold

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