The Rotted at Myspace / Gorerotted at Myspace

First God made metal. But the metal was without gore or splatter, and so God said, “Let there be brutal death”, and then there was gore and splatter. And God saw that the gore was good, and God made Gorerotted. And he said to Gorerotted, “go and make some really sick brutal death metal, you fucks”. And so it was, and the children of God were happy, and it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, and time passed, and God’s children lost faith in Gorerotted, because nothing could ever beat ‘Fuck Your Arse With Broken Glass’, so why carry on? And they told this to God. And God went to his bedroom and listened to Napalm Death and had a bong, and read his book of puns. And God said, “Let there be a new band, and let it be called ‘The Rotted’. And let it mix hardcore punk elements into the brutal death metal stew, but let it do so without being lame”. And God’s children doubted his word, because everyone knows what happens when bands try that shit, but they held tight and regularly checked Myspace. And after a while, God gave the new album to his children. And it was the dog’s bollocks.

‘Get Dead or Die Trying’ sounds nothing like Gorerotted, really, so it’s no surprise they changed the name. Listening to Gorerotted, you could well imagine they recorded each album in one take. Not that it was sloppy or anything, far from it, it was just fucking raw. The Rotted are an entirely different affair – This is sleek, refined death metal, without being at all pretentious. Every instrument is given just enough space to breathe, every riff is carefully calculated and perfectly timed. It even borders on sounding ‘Death & Roll’ at points, although the speed keeps it from straying too far into those iffy waters. The harsh vocals are loud and thick, delivered with a rumbling force that Gorerotted’s stuff lacked.

The punk influences really add something cool to the mix. I’m no hardcore kiddie or anything (fuck that shit), but I think any metalhead worth his salt should appreciate at least some punk. And, evidently, so do the guys in The Rotted, since this album really embraces the punk aesthetic (check out the album cover) and sound, while remaining unmistakably death metal. Each song has an undeniably catchy punk vibe, to such a degree that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if its music videos end up on Kerrang. Which is strange, because a death metal band with that level of commercial viability would normally be totally gay. But this is really good.

So, in conclusion. This album is a fucking great surprise from the ex-Gorerotted boys. I fully approve of and support their new musical direction (as long as they’ll still play old Gorerotted songs live) and I hope it makes them rich and famous. You should buy it. You can stream it in its entirety by clicking here if you need more convincing.

Monday, July 14th, 2008 @ 9:52 pm Death Metal
RSS 2.0 Trackback