It's Only Smellz​.​.​.

Now this is a surprise, goregrind from Ukraine! I can't really say I would've expected such a band from that region, mostly due to it mostly being associated with black metal, with their biggest exports metal wise easily being Nokturnal Mortum and Dub Buk. So yeah, you get the picture. Didn't expect this to come from there. I actually found this record whilst I was in the middle of a goregrind binge, listening to everything from General Surgery to Blasted Pancreas, and found this on some list containing obscure goregrind bands. I was a bit apprehensive at first, given the obscurity of the band (and most obscure bands being obscure for good reason), but I liked the cover art quite a bit and found their location intriguing, so I put the album on and listened intently.

And shit, I'm really glad I did! This is a modern day classic extreme metal record that honestly has a wider appeal than the genre tags would imply. Truthfully, this is as much of a brutal death metal record (and arguably more of one) than a goregrind record. Thuggish grooves are littered throughout the record, bringing to mind bands such as Skinless and especially Dying Fetus. The opener quite literally sounds like a Dying Fetus song with the technicality replaced with an extra helping of grooves made for metalheads to put on gold chains and crip walk across the venue to, and it's absolutely wonderful. It honestly feels like the band really have an appreciation for metal itself, as there are little genre nods here and there to the foundations of metal itself, such as on the track "Don't Touch My Guitar With Your Fatty Fingers", where the band use gang shouts for the chorus that honestly would not sound out of place on a thrash record, or even the first Cannibal Corpse record.

These additions also indicate to me that the band actually do, you know, like metal, and that is such a breath of fresh air due to pretty much every band forming nowadays not even understanding the ethos of the genre itself, instead viewing it as nothing more than a vector for them to mosh and attempt to drunkenly harass women as shows because "like, we both like metal, dude." Fecality, although tongue in cheek and silly, plays metal, appreciates metal, and clearly are very skilled at playing it, as this is easily one of the best goregrind records I've heard in years, and easily goes toe to toe with the classics of the genre. If you're looking for a goregrind record that is immediate and fun yet doesn't feel completely infantile, this is an absolute must buy. An essential, and hopefully if enough people listen, the band will release more material sooner rather than later. Absolutely fantastic.