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PUTRID TOMB
Putrid Tomb EP

Desert Wastelands Productions (2021)
Rating: 8/10

Another slab of death metal is upon us, 2021 being another year drenched in deathly gore as Putrid Tomb rises from the depths of San Diego, California to release its self-titled debut EP.

This five track affair comes two years after the band’s 2019 demo, Consuming The Deceased, and is the work of a gruesome twosome – Kian Abulhosn (vocals, bass, drums and classical guitar) and Marc Novoa (electric guitar) – who have learned their licks the same way a serial killer hides bodies.

Like a lot of modern day underground death metal, this comes wrapped in heavyweight, blood-soaked bandages and leaks pus from every clotted orifice. Just revel in the deep gorges of the organic riffs, frolic in that dirty, stinking bass tone and cavort amongst the percussive nods as the vocals ply their grisly trade of burping up chesty tirades.

Lashings of pace, sodden with misery, ooze from opening slab ‘Heaven’s Gate’ as Autopsy-styled rolls of flab are sliced open to expose festering innards of doom-laden, downtuned gore.

There’s something maniacal and unhinged about this affair; a mad butcher, if you will, chopping away with rusty clever to the soundtrack of chomping riffs, eye-popping bass and that dull, flailing drum sound. Varying shifts of pace provide numerous sickly flavours as a squalid riff chugs with misery and menace.

‘Afterbirth’ provides further unhygienic lumbering with a sneering, frothing expression of pace and toxic hammering. Meanwhile, ‘The Reanimator’ is equally damaging; a visceral heap of carnage streaked with lunatic solos and a churning, gnashing rhythm section caked with corpse juice.

Even at their fastest, Putrid Tomb remains bestial and bloody. Interlude ‘Comatose (Soul Psychosis)’ bleeds into the fetid ‘Putrid Tomb’, which is an often mid-paced slog of rusty machinery billowing bile and occasional losing control as it morphs into faster jerks of spasmodic efficiency.

Hellish squeaks emerge out of the gruffer tones, in-keeping with the nastier, foaming tempos before Putrid Tomb takes its final bow, chugging ominously while shovelling soil into its own open casket. The respite is welcoming, but the fact remains that a full-length release cannot come soon enough for me.

Neil Arnold

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