Veneration of Filth

Crawling up from the depths of Texas is a grueling death metal act by the name of Church Of Disgust. Their first album Unworldly Summoning dropped back in 2014, but their most recent effort Veneration Of Filth capitalized on everything the band did well. Their brand fits in with the occult and Lovecraft-inspired types that add a lot of doom to their traditional death metal base.

The abundance of trudging and grizzly riff styles are what give Church Of Disgust such a horrendous sound. If that’s not enough, the drum kicks are absolutely monstrous, and I love the tone of them. But the biggest improvement the band made was in the vocal delivery. Before, this was one of the weakest points, where-as now the delivery has loads more variance and sounds less throaty. It greatly complements the rhythms in songs like “Ripping Decay,” as they’re heavy enough to cause plates to shift.

On the contrary, there are times where Veneration Of Filth achieves breakneck speeds. “Corpses Of The Dead World” is such an angry song that the fast injection gives it the title of the most threatening tune present. Furthermore, “Supine In The Face Of Total Death” has some of the most abrasive punches to offer, which follows the creepy interlude. The only real downfall is that by the time we reach the last couple of songs, the inspiration takes a bit of a tank, which brings the overall product down. Shaving off ten minutes or so could have helped things in that respect.

But at the end of the day, this disc showcases tons of improvement from what was previously rather mediocre. Fans of Bestialord would dig this, as it’s similar in style but not nearly as tight or on point regarding songwriting. The title of the band and album is fitting, as all things present are brought on in a filthy manner. Fans of death metal or occult themes, this is a good way to ease into the spooky season!

Originally written for Indy Metal Vault

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.

Veneration of Filth is an album that deserves credit for sounding just like it looks. The Putrid Matt black and white artwork promises a morass of abominations, a death metal Swamp Thing, and musically these Texans have arranged their sophomore to provide exactly that; a punishing exhibition of old school ugliness which eschews complexity for balanced, barbaric nostalgia. Much as you'd pore over the pages of antiquated horror comics to connect to those morbid fascinations you'd recall from your youth, you'd ride this tunnel of rot to reflect upon those great records of yesteryear which might have initially frightened or repulsed you if you were even open to their gruesome potential in the later 80s or early 90s: Slowly We Rot, Scream Bloody Gore, Consuming Impulse, Mental Funeral, Realm of Chaos, The Dying Truth.

Church of Disgust celebrates this legacy, and wears its influences on its tattered sleeve, but doesn't do so through sheer laziness or lack of inspiration. While it's true that a lot of the tunes here are centered on slower, predictable grooves that we've all heard before, they excel at adorning them with disheveled melodies or eerie harmonies that elevate the experience beyond something you can just easily delegate to that cardboard box of CDs you'll never listen through again. The band is also quite good at picking out samples or using feedback and ambient noise to inaugurate a track and thrust you directly into the cinematic atmosphere which influenced it. When they pick up their pace, they move at an intestine churning clip redolent of old Bolt Thrower, just a hint of the grinding that informed that old, unpleasant British death metal. When they neuter it, they perform pretty well in a lurching death/doom territory where you can envision their cover creature tramping through the muck and devouring some unwitting victim...not a sad sort of doom, just evil beyond ken.

The nihilistic barking growl of Dustin James hardly stands out in such a crowded cemetery of guttural icons, not particularly vicious or memorable; but it's appealingly raw, blunt and to the point, a cousin to the styles of Chris Reifert and Chuck Schuldiner, but not quite so dripping with guts or oozing with viscera. The bass sounds pretty cool through the album, especially when they fatten it with some effects as in "Sunken Altar of Dagon" which is joined with roiling feedback for one of the record's creepiest moments. As I was listening, I felt like the drums, while raw and potent, were a bit overboard in some places where the double bass was battering and drowning out the remainder, but some won't view this so much as a flaw since it encapsulates the very primal DIY approach this group is taking. The themes here are ripe with cosmic or earthly horror, a clear streak of Lovecraft influence, especially the corruption of Mythos beings upon the flesh of mortals, and musically they do a pretty decent job of incorporating that into the music itself. Some of the more cookie cutter chord patterns are a little too obvious, but overall Veneration of Filth promotes some of that fear it celebrates, which is more than you can say for many records of its ilk.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com