The Putrid Smell Within

Half the reason I bought this was because I was 14 and thought the song titles were hilarious. Some of them are still pretty great in a disgusting and bizarre sort of way, although it's lost a bit of that charm now. Nevertheless, over time this has held up as a strange and somewhat legit groovy brutal death metal album in my collection. It's ostensibly brutal death metal of a very straightforward nature, but it's written with a short, punchy grindcore-esque approach to the songs (though none of the music sounds like grind in particular). There's one thing that's particularly noticeable about this album: it doesn't really slam. That's not to say this album is constantly punishing you with super fast and technical stuff though--quite the opposite in fact. The Putrid Smell Within pretty much has two modes: midpaced groovy brutal death metal and slightly faster groovy brutal death metal. There's maybe one or two moments on this album that both the guitars and the drums actually reach a tempo slow enough that one could get away with calling it a "slam". The rest of the time, the slower moments just sound like really heavy thrash breaks.

This could be due to the fact that the songs are never more than three minutes long and don't get too many chances to vary greatly in tempo, or perhaps because of Jason Longo's constantly active drum style, but most likely it's the fault of only having one guitarist. Though the guitar tone is nice and suitable for a brutal death style, the inability to really layer several different harmonies and lower ends the way one could with a bassist and another guitarist is clearly showing on this album. None of the riffs are bad, mind you--in fact a lot of them are pretty catchy in a Jungle Rot-like caveman sort of way. Tristan Biggar perhaps has a wee bit more depth to his riffing, but not by much. There's just enough substance in the riffs that they can carry the song for about two minutes, which is all they really need, because, well, that's about how long most of the songs ends up being. There's usually somewhere between two and four riffs used per song, and each riff hangs around long enough that nothing quite overstays its welcome. It's beneficial that Biggar knows what he's good at and how long his riffs can maintain interest for, but simultaneously a lot of these tracks feel kind of barren and sound as though they could have used a little more time in the writing process for expansion and refinement. Or, y'know, a bass player or something.

Still, though, most of the songs sound complete and decent enough as they are, and even when this band does attempt to write a song over two minutes the results aren't any more interesting. The back-and-forth between brutal death with some skanky thrash beats and blasting is a pretty tried-and-true formula, but rarely do I see it with such a straightforward take. There is another element of the music that takes up a decent amount of time--the samples. All of them seem pretty easily identifiable as say, Kevin Spacey or something from Family Guy or something like that. Some of them are good for a half-hearted chuckle the first couple of times around but a lot of them just come off as kinda dumb and cringeworthy. (Example: the "throbbing cock" sample looped"). There's a very fine line you gotta toe with brutal death metal samples between being hilariously gross and being sadistically disturbed, and very few bands can straddle it well--Blastomycosis are not one of them, and as such the samples have little value after a couple of listens and end up only really serving as a way of indicating when one song and and another begins. One thing that does keep this album interesting after a couple of listens, though, is Fetus Baker. (Man, I just understood the pun present in his nickname as I typed that out, that's actually kinda funny.) The guy's got a really nice, deep low and he intersperses it with a competent higher rasp (and a couple of other weird vocal stylings as well) to make for a performance that doesn't try to steal the show, but still adds a little bit of spice to the riffs. He also relegates this album firmly to the realm of brutal death metal. Though the riffs are pretty solidly in the death metal camp, with more shouty death metal vocals you could come very close to categorizing these guys as a death/thrash band, albeit a very modern, heavy one. Fetus Baker reminds us that this is some brutal shit, dawg. (As if a song title like "Yeast Infected Cunt Strudel" wasn't enough of an indicator...)

Random aside: why do these guys hate hookers so much? I mean, I know it's a pretty common theme in brutal death metal either way, but there's a particular fixation on prostitutes. (I'm just going by the song titles, the album doesn't come with the lyrics.) I guess it's the "theme" of the album? Maybe one of the band members had a couple of shameful experiences and wrote the lyrics in an attempt to get over the regret? Maybe the band's just trying to be abrasive, who knows. "Whores" is just a very strange lyrical theme to have is all I'm saying.

This is about as good as you'd probably expect: good for a handful of listens for the riffs and a few cheap laughs for the samples. There's a good band within the somewhat amateurish delivery, and were this band to become more fleshed out and well-rounded, they might be one of the better brutal death metal bands out there because the riffing potential is definitely present. For now, though, The Putrid Smell Within will interest only the most hardcore collectors of brutal death.