Mutilated @ MySpace

It’s been quite a while since my last review, and I thought I’d give this whole writing business another try.  This time I have a classic brutal death metal album from my homestate of Michigan that came out in ’03.  Who says that all reviews have to be done about new ones?  There’s actually quite a few good bands that hail from Lansing, Detroit and it’s surrounding areas, such as Intestinal Alien Reflux, Gutrot (R.I.P.), Saprogenic and Nocturnal Fear, just to name a few.  However, if I were told which Michigan-based death metal band I enjoyed the most, I would have to say Mutilated (R.I.P.) takes the cake, and I will thoroughly explain to you people as to why I love them so much.

I suppose I should start off with the meat of “Devirginated Genital Pulp“, because there’s no other thing I could ever open with, and the meat would have to be the insanely groovy and thick riffs that are laid throughout this album, and after the short intro to “Hollowed Out Cunt“, you should know by now exactly what you’re getting into.  The way I look at the guitar work on this album is exactly what Cannibal Corpse would be in an alternate universe had the Chris Barnes-era never ended.  I really don’t want to call this album classic Cannibal Corpse worship, because it definitely has an identity of its own, but you could easily swap out a few songs on “The Bleeding” and replace them with “Impetuous Bloodshed“, “Axe Versus Throat“, and “Lactating Blood” and you would never know the difference.  However, I will say that “To Fuck The Rotted” is certainly Mutilated‘s “Hammer Smashed Face“.

One of the members that really drew me to this band in the first place would have to be Brian Forgue (vocalist) of the insanely awesome and brutal Gutrot, because his vocals in that band are quite frankly some of the best gutturals I’ve ever heard, and when I saw he had something to do with Mutilated, I figured I would get the exact same treatment.  While he does show off his gutturals every once in a while, it seems that Brian has reverted to doing regular death metal growls that emulates Chris Barnes’ old style pretty well.  As decent as he is at the generic growls they can actually get quite monotonous rather quickly and I would much rather hear his sick croaking.  However, Brian has fantastic timing with his vocals, knowing exactly when to shut his mouth to let the riffs and drums just pummel you, and while in a somewhat predictable-yet-still-awesome fashion, he comes back in to finish you off.  I guess if I wanted to hear nothing but his gutturals then just stick with Gutrot or Syphilic.

The only thing that really bothers me about this album is both the lack in creativity when it comes to the Zach Gibson’s drumming  and barely being able to hear Qyet Kevin’s bass.  The problem with Zach is exactly the problem that Paul Mazurkiewicz; there is no creativity on their part other than just jamming with what is given to them by the guitarists.  Seriously, Zach has done some interesting things in Gutrot, so why can’t he inject some of those ideas into Mutilated?  Both bands aren’t that different fundamentally, so the same approach should be able to work in theory.  As far as not being able to hear Qyet’s bass, I know the guy isn’t any Alex Webster, and I respect that, but Jesus Christ, why the fuck do bands think putting the bass so low in the mix is a good idea?  It’s a fantastic instrument, and when utilized correctly, it can enhance the music to an entirely different degree.  Those are my only real gripes about this album, so they are quite minor to how good everything else is.

In the end, “Devirginiated Genital Pulp” is exactly what any brutal death metal fan should be looking for; especially those of you who can’t get enough of Chris Barnes’-era Cannibal Corpse.  These guys manage to take the best elements of their former days and multiply them ten fold, and what we get here are some really catchy and groovy brutal death metal.  When the local music scene is being populated with shitty deathcore acts and moptop metalcore/screamo girly-boys, I really wish that Mutilated would come back and destroy those worthless fucks with the main-riff of “Hollowed Out Cunt“. Seriously, this is how brutal death metal should be played, and all those other younger bands can really learn something from Mutilated, and you can too.

First, the metal elements are pretty superficial. The real emphasis of this album is the lyrics, and man, are they ever a doozy. They’re some of the most offensive stuff I’ve ever heard. The subject matter is similar to early Cannibal Corpse; if Chris Barnes had become a rapper instead of a death metal singer, he might have lyrics like these. (I would go into more detail, but my mom reads my reviews here so I won’t.) It’s like they were trying to go out of the way to cover all the bases of offensiveness; in addition to the typical lyrics about rape and murder, the occasionally throw in a few anti-Christian lyrics. The rhyming is pretty insipid; a typical example is “surgeon” and “virgin”. Profanity is way over used; I counted 40 F-bombs in the second song, which is six and a half minutes long. There are also some samples from “true crime” shows, including a truly sickening one from a child murderer that I had to skip over. They also lifted the opening from Black Sabbath’s debut album for the beginning of the last track, something any fan of real metal would recognize, but which would go over the heads of nu-metal fans.

I’m not entirely sure why I reviewed this album. As mentioned above, there’s barely any metal in it even for a nu-metal album, I hate rap so I can’t really judge it by that genre’s standards, and it’s so obscure that no one’s likely to find it anywhere. I still kind of enjoy it despite its lyrics, but I’m definitely laughing at these guys instead of with them.