Maggots in Her Smile

After 20 years of disbandment, the band has finally returned with new material. 2014 Demo, or in newer versions, Maggots in Her Smile, brings four fresh songs of the band’s unique brutal death metal sound. It’s quite like the good old and brilliant Psychopathic Embryotomy. This demo also has a better production, and the music is more melodic or technical, which is a nice touch, maintaining the brutality presented in the early 90s.

Unfortunately, this is the last material recorded with the late Matt Duncan. Even after 20 years, he still maintained his godly gutturals. The guitars are different compared to the old music. Although they’re more melodic or technical in the rhythmic nature, they still sound great. The bass adds more layers to the music, thanks to its jazzy sound, and it’s hardly raw. Speaking of that nice jazz effect, it sounds a lot more unorthodox than most bands producing jazz in extreme metal; briefly adding more to the music’s atmosphere. I’m not sure if it’s because of the clean productions, but I think there are more blast beats than before. That being said, you also have the instrumental versions of each song.

While the songs sound different from each other, they weren’t in the likes of Psychopathic Embryotomy. They had this impression of “a bunch of friends jamming” instead of four musicians wanting to become a band. They sounded like a downgrade from what the band used to play 20 years ago. I’m not saying a change or an improvement (which sometimes this demo presents) is a bad thing. Quite the opposite. I just think this material didn’t bring the quality of what the raw and brutal production of Psychopathic Embryotomy contained (not that I felt this demo should’ve been raw). Cirque Sombre Noir is the standout track. While it’s short compared to the rest of the songs, it was on point. The other ones were more of a drag, though I liked the jazziness in Vomit of Humanity and Spiritually Transmitted Disease.