Swamped in Gore

Sometimes it is difficult to separate novelty from quality, and at others it is difficult to recognize quality given the sometimes overbearing character of novelty. In the case of Broken Hope, a fairly early but not quite pioneering band of the early day of death metal, became noteworthy for a couple of specific accomplishments that can be categorized as ancillary to the entire scene, especially in respect to what other bands had done a couple years prior. One of these being the first band to record entirely in a digital format on their debut LP Swamped In Gore, and album that otherwise did more to reaffirm existing practices rather than break new stylistic ground. Similarly, while musically they never got too far beyond things that were put forth by Obituary, Autopsy, Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel a year or two before, the vocal work of Joe Ptacek did ratchet up the extreme depths that the characteristic guttural barks of the style more so than John Tardy and David Vincent had, and also arguably even next to the equally brutal and deep character of Chris Barnes work.

At first glance, Broken Hope's debut album comes off as a quirky, almost comical take on the gore obsessed character of death metal. The album art almost looks like a chess game parody of said theme, and the lyrical content tends to reflect and arguably expand upon the graphic imagery characteristic of Cannibal Corpse's Eaten Back To Life. However, musically things take on a decidedly safe and by the numbers character, reflecting the sludgy yet still largely coherent and character of the style's thrash and doom metal roots, with a bit more of a focus on the slower doom elements than CC's early albums in favor of something closer to Obituary's Slowly We Rot and Autopsy's Severed Survival, though the combination of Ptacek's extremely deep vocals and the generally husky sound of the atmosphere accomplished in the production bears a bit of resemblance to Immolation's Dawn Of Possession, which hit circulation only a few months before this. It could rightly be considered a product of its time, though it does maintain a level of distinctiveness.

While this is an album that is heavily simplistic compared to where the Florida scene was moving by 1991, the combination of its simplicity and the atmospheric character it shares with certain early New York entries into the genre (Incantation, Immolation) give it a certain charm that makes up for much of what it may lack in intricacies and flash. It makes fairly regular use of bass alone segments, arguably about 4 times as frequently as Cannibal Corpse ever has, though the segments are generally a reflection of the simplistic doom character of the riffs and whatever technical flash is found it generally reserved to the guitars. Guitar solos are used a bit more sparingly than the obligatory Slayer inspired fair heard out of Florida bands, and sometimes omitted entirely during some of the shorter songs such as "Gorehog", though when they occur they tend to exemplify the wild character of the Kerry King method, particularly on "Gobblin' The Guts", the tail end of "Awakened By Stench", in fairly short bursts. But overall, this is an album that is driven by atmosphere and a dichotomy of fast and slow that ranges from gradual transition to jarring shifts.

Generally this album does not get as much respect as it probably should, mostly because it tends to embrace a number of stereotypes that would be later abandoned as the 1990s progressed and bands such as Suffocation began to influence the tone and tenor of what constituted brutality, whereas other bands took a more melodic or progressive road as typified in later works of Carcass and Death. Words like passe and obsolete might be a bit harsh, but they do reflect a general attitude towards this older mode of death metal by much of the current scene, with exceptions given to certain obligatory classics that are otherwise identical in style to this. It is by no means a bad album, quite the contrary, but it is definitely a product of its time to the point where it may not do much for someone who considers the likes of Defeated Sanity to not be brutal enough. It's definitely fodder for old school fanatics that can develop a level of affection for the early works of less consequential bands such as Benediction and Massacre.