Boiling Humans

Basically, this is Embalmed doing a split release with themselves in disguise. Both Blastwound and Embalmed share three of the four same members, with only one of the guitarists being a different guy. From what I read, this is a compilation of a demo Embalmed did, and an album by Blastwound that never saw the light of day. But was a name change really that necessary to get to this point, one might ask? Let me answer that right now: no.

So, different bands or not, the cold, hard fact is that there is not a whole lot of difference going on between both acts musically. In both cases, we get a pretty belligerent style of old school brutal death metal, nestled somewhere between Deicide, the first couple of Kataklysm releases, early Dying Fetus and a smidge of Craig Pillard era Incantation added. This means a low, viciously growling grunt, coupled with old school death metal riffing by Floridian early 90's recipe. The tracks themselves mostly lean over to a heavy slower, midtempo stomping pace, at times alternated with primitive blastbeat driven accelerations. It's a concoction that bludgeons its way through a production job that keeps it heavy and low in the guitar department, and natural when it comes to the percussion, giving the music a brutish edge that fits both bands like a glove. In both cases the execution is on the rough side, but for most part, it works pretty damn good for both, giving them a coarse, rough 'n' ready feel throughout.

But aren't there any differences to be found? Not a lot, really. From what I can discern here, is that sometimes the technical execution on the Blastwound tracks is a bit sloppier than on the Embalmed demo, slightly veering into somewhat chaotic territory. And that is a messy kind of chaotic, unfortunately. What the Blastwound part also has, is some soundbytes popping up here and there, but these are not such a nuissance in the big picture, luckily. As a last something, it has to be noted that the production on the Embalmed tracks is a tad denser, making them sound just that bit heavier.

All in all, this is a great compilation, with two good 90's US death metal acts, although in all honesty, you could make the point that it's just one band, and that schizophrenic band delivers a punishing dose of old style brutality, that maintains a constant quality throughout. If you're a fan of the bands mentioned above, and you can also stomach stuff like Sintury, Infester (the early 90's one), Broken Hope, and the old United Guttural acts, this should be of interest to you, for sure.