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Extreme Rot > Obscure Suffering > Reviews
Extreme Rot - Obscure Suffering

Mad Hefei skills - 73%

gasmask_colostomy, June 14th, 2018

I’m not a massive fan of brutal death metal, but there’s a very good reason for me to be reviewing this lonely EP from Chinese band高度腐烂 Extreme Rot. They are the only band on The Metal Archives from Hefei, Anhui province, for whom I can actually locate some music! (I live in Hefei, if that wasn’t clear.) The city isn’t a hotbed for metal, being a second-tier Chinese city of around eight million people and having only developed in the past 30 years or so, though there are more than a few well-known associates of mine who are involved in other low-key bands without recordings as of yet. I’ve never seen these guys personally, though perchance Extreme Rot might be on local billboards soon, which would get me excited unless it’s a public health announcement.

Ahem: the music. All of the songs here are short, at around three minutes each, and favour technicality and brutality over groove or melody, even if the instrumental tones are not too oppressive for the style. All members of the band put on a good show despite a rather generic piggy performance from the vocalist, who growls and snorts most of the time, transplanting a couple of high squeals into the mix on occasion. Both the drummer and bassist have really mastered their chops, the former blasting with a vengeance before meticulously turning on the variety. Some parts are almost certainly triggered yet don’t spoil the songs, though the bass work is pure ability and highlights several nice changes of momentum with quick fills. The most impressive instance of everything coming together is surely the nightmare skills of ‘Internal Ulcer’, which I would not imagine myself capable of playing in my wildest dreams.

It’s unlikely that you’re going to remember the songs individually, especially since the same basic style features on all four of the main tracks, though the technicality helps to create pinpoints of detail every few seconds, meaning that a great deal of content is stuffed into a short EP. Slasher samples break the assault between tracks, while there is also a soothing piano introduction and acoustic outro that might have been better cut down in size and placed between the regular compositions. Nonetheless, this is an extremely skillful showing from my noisy neighbours.


-- May Diamhea's feat of 100 reviews in 7 days remain unbeaten --