Negligence...

Iatrogenesis – any adverse effect by doctors or any healthcare person on the affected person – could be the proper description to explain Negligence…. If you think of Iatrogenia as the “doctor” and the listener as the “affected,” one might see how an 18 minute outpouring of brutal death metal might be a negative side-effect on the listener. However, while all is not totally reinvigorating here, it’s a fun way to spend a short amount of time.

After the intro, the first thing you will notice is the production. It’s loud, brash, and all instruments are competing for the limelight. The drums probably take up some of it, due in part to their blasting, but that’s the nature of Negligence…: everything hits you from all sides at once. By that, I mean the chugging riffs with the occasional pinch harmonics. The bass guitar, surprisingly, can be heard quite well through the cacophony of noise, thanks in part to the favouring production focusing on the low-end. Drumming is usually a whirlwind of blasting sections with the occasional stops to anything-but-blasts. The sound of the snare drum is not the best, but it’s passable for the type of music this is. Vocals are both high shrieks and low grumbles. I prefer the latter, but both fit this style played.

It’s hard to pick out any stand-out tracks here, since all tracks are so maniacal in their technique that remembering any song can be a real feat. Sure, there’s the cool bass guitar break in “Brutally Sodomized,” or the triplet feel at the start of “Unethical Medical Experimentation” that reminds me of later Vital Remains, but the discordant, unmelodious relentlessness renders Negligence… a buzzing array of noises that coagulate into a brutal death metal mess. And yet…I can’t hate this. It’s like eating a tall hamburger: you’re going to have lettuce and bread and tomato and sauce falling out all over the table and in your lap, but you’re going to enjoy every bite you take.

This album, if it can so be called after an eighteen minute run time, is not the most original thing you’re ever going to hear, nor will it be the most comfortable. Much like the brain lobotomy the cover art depicts, it’s not going to be a pleasant experience, but Negligence… is a short burst of unoriginal insanity that will leave you wanting more. Or wanting an Aspirin.