Cuntagious Cuntaclysm

It's fairly obvious from the name of this band that it's a parody band, at least in part. Therefore it's quite surprising to learn that Joe DeSavlio (mastermind of the project) is actually an incredibly skilled musician who's capable of captivating the listener even if what they're listening to is far outside their usual comfort zone (such as I).

Chugging tends to get stale pretty quickly, and as that's one of the main elements of most deathcore bands I tend not to enjoy this kind of thing. However Cuntagious Cuntaclysm is not overly reliant on this for its formula, and rather uses it sparingly and tastefully. When it does appear it's mostly used as a destructive force, with a thundering power that rocks the listener. It's a far cry from the more delicate and often technical sections that populate such a large portion of this album. I was surprised when I first heard Cuntagious Cuntaclysm precisely because of how carefully orchestrated so much of it is (there's even a Hans Zimmer cover that remains true to the original). Having heard the band's debut, Cuntastrophy, I expected nothing but fast-paced, furious, technical destruction, but Joe DeSalvio offers us something much more than that and I really do like it. The bass lines are also very audible and tend to help add that extra powerful dynamic to the mix.

DeSalvio deserves a lot of credit as a musician as well. He played every instrument on this record, and he shows how dynamic his skills are. He's capable of playing the guitar with insane technicality, the best example probably being on 'Hanging Gardens', where he also showcases his ability to play the drums with great control rather than simply blasting at high speed. A few tracks later we're given what is basically the polar opposite of this in 'Radiation Poisoning', full of different patterns of blast-beats and generally pretty frantic hammering of the kit (after taking its time to wind up a bit). The chugging is pretty groovy and I can get down to it more than I would have anticipated, and I will it to last longer than two and a half minutes.

This brings me onto the biggest problem that this album faces, which comes in the form of the length of the tracks. There are eighteen songs on Cuntagious Cuntaclysm, a mere six of which last more than two minutes. That gives the feeling that there's no depth to the album and almost every track is over before it's really even got started. Okay, it helps to stop things going stale, but there are better ways of going about doing that than cutting everything off after a minute and a half. I feel like almost half of these tracks could have been spliced together with another in some way.

All in all however it has to be said that this is a pretty good release. It's very different from the debut (which I wasn't expecting) but again, Cunt Cuntly is not a project that should be written off until hearing their work. Certainly recommended for those in the mood for something slightly different.