Veneration of Filth

Church of disgust are a band of tradition. They drag the rotten corpse of death metal straight out of the grave and waft its ghastly fumes in your direction.

The production here is very primitive, and reminiscent of the work of Scott Burns (albeit with MUCH more present bass and thicker bass drums). The guitars are sharp, angular and cut the through the bass' throaty clank. Everything has a lot of meat to it, but you can easily pick apart each instrument and really listen to what's going on which is a breath of fresh air amidst the cavernous sound of today's metal of death.The drums could use a little more reverb on the cymbals and snare, however, there is plenty on the toms which I find a bit odd. The only drawback of this album seems to be the lack of presence from the guitar, it feels very far away in the mix in contrast to the bass and the drums. The leads however, sound awesome and give me goosebumps like when I had first heard Immolation's 'Dawn of Possession'.

The album starts off with a clawhammer to the back of the head with 'Wrath of the Thirteen', a mid-paced banger much in the tradition of bands like Cianide and Deteriorot. This bodes well, as none of the present tropes of played out Incantation or Blasphemy influence are anywhere to be seen. The riffs are constructed in no real surprising manner, however, they deliver exactly what they should: pounding death metal. When the guitars finally get busy in the opening of 'Corpses of Dead Worlds', the album leaps forward in speed as Church of Disgust assaults you with ripping trem riffs before sinking back into their groove again. 'Abhorrent Cruelty' starts out with a bit of a hardcore punk vibe, showing that classic Cianide backbone again before fading into one of their better segues before unleashing that surgically-precise Bolt Thrower drum rip.

One of their more imaginative moments comes in the hook in 'Plague of Punishment' as they take on some ballsier arrangements and show a little bit of Morgoth's sense of writhing groove. The dead stop that falls away to pitch shifted chanting and that lonely sounding, tortured solo is definitely one of the cornier moments on the record BUT it does a good job to make it feel right at home with bands like Catacomb and Cenotaph by delivering that honest Lovecraftian vibe which is further built upon by the great interlude that follows.

'Supine in the Face of Total Death' operates like a twisted amalgamation of Deicide and and Bolt Thrower, chopping away at your sanity with stark tempo changes and some of the best vocal hooks on the record in its chorus.


Overall, you wont get too many surprises out of this record as theses dudes are doing their best to use the long forgotten texts of the old skull to summon up the beasts of the past. That in no way detracts from this record, as front to back it is an unabashed savage ripper. There are few bands around today that are part of the New Wave of Old School Death Metal who can deliver this kind of music with conviction and do it convincingly. These dudes are the real deal, and 'Veneration of Filth' is a lesson in absolute punishment from the crypts.