Fallen in Gore

The bands on this split are arranged in order of their formation from earliest to most recent, which happens to be the order of the most well known to the least (the latter order should not be deduced as simply a function of the former). First up is Haemorrhage, a unit familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in goregrind. I admit, my explorations of their discography has been limited, and if Fallen in Gore is anything to go by, I'm the worse for it. The two tracks they offer are firmly on the DM side of things, sounding more like the second Carcass album than the first. “I Work in the Morgue” is home to riffing of a complexity rare in grind. It moves at a pace suited to displaying its heaviness, while setting aside some time for the obligatory blasting sections. For their second track, they show some love for Austrian deviants Pungent Stench by covering “Bonesawer”, a cut from For God Your Soul… for Me Your Flesh (the second best PS album). On this rendition, the bass is a beneficiary of steroid use, but it's mostly faithful, doing justice to the song with its old school groove, and the solo is pulled off without a hitch. Coffins' version is still the cover to beat, but this one puts up a good fight.

Next we have Hemdale who in nearly thirty years of existence have managed to never release a proper album. Unlike the material of the other two bands, Hemdale's songs are more in the trad grind tradition. They offer as many songs as the other two combined, but take up the least amount of run time. Additionally they give their songs titles like “Drink and Drive” and “I Kicked Your Grandmother in the Cunt and Shot Her in the Face”. What Hemdale lack in technical ability, good taste and common sense they make up for in unhinged aggression (or so they'd like to think so). A rumbling whir of guitars take the place of riffs. The high and low vocals are engaged in a contest to out-insane each other. This squabbling is unnecessary when they're really a perfect couple: the lows express the desire to inflict the pain that the highs express the suffering of. The drumming has more in common with using automatic firearms than with playing music. Dumb fun.

Lastly, there's Meat Spreader. Though formed in 2016, the band is not made up of newbies, featuring members who've played in Squash Bowels, Dead Infection, and Neuropathia among other bands. Goregrind's influence on their sound is most evident in the vocals which seem the product of the gastrointestinal rather than the respiratory, excepting some punk yelps on the final track “Meat Spreader”. Realizing the expectations that come with naming a song after your band, they saved their best riffs for this one. Mostly they come to DM for its brutality, but here they channel its sinister side with some well placed trills. Worry not my gorehounds; it does break into full bore blasting in the middle. (If Google translate is correct) the preceding track's title uses the Polish word for frostbite, “frostible”; a sensible choice as that one sounds funnier. Speaking of things that sound funny, this split was released by Left Hand Patches, a new label that also released the Noisear/Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation split I covered in my last review. Not bad so far. Fallen in Gore is nothing revolutionary, and certainly not essential, but delivers what's promised and shows some variety in a subgenre not known to have much.