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.

When Pathos Productions reached out Afterbirth’s guitarist Cody Drasser back in 2012 in order to re-issue the band’s demos from the mid-1990s, the band went on board all over again and decided to reactivate what was hibernated since 1995. The result of it is Afterbirth’s self-released demo that was launched during 2014.

Soon in the first track, “Cirque Sombre Noir”, the band applies a bunch of diverse guitar riffs that go from full-bodied ones to something more technical without leaving apart the slow and heavy passages recalling Cannibal Corpse – something that’s also heard in the last track, “Maggots In Her Smile”. The band’s technical side is spread over the demo and it’s sometimes supported by a sonic drumming work delivered by the precise blast beats around the snare and the rim cymbal. The bass guitar is an instrument that’s quite audible and it even emerges by itself in a spontaneous and brief passage in “Vomit on Humanity”. Also in “Spiritually Transmitted Disease”, the bass lines are an essential part of the song in which it accompanies the rhythm of drums or follows the technical guitar. In spite of being labeled as death metal, we can find some progressive touches due to the constant changing of rhythm and riffs. Matt Duncan – who is no longer part of Afterbirth – delivers vocals that are purely inspired by the grindcore method with muffled growls comprising barely perceptible words.

In the end, we may have the idea that four songs which hardly exceed the four minutes running time are not enough to show the power that these veterans can execute. However, it can be possible that this comeback might be a new era for the band’s career that was interrupted for so many years and that this demo is not just an isolated shot.

Originally written at www.againstmagazine.com