Voracious Contempt

I remember I got their demos "Invocation of Evil" and "Perpetual Degradation" by tape-trading back in the old days, and I immediately loved this band, his rude, raw, brutal sound, NY/NJ brutal death metal a la Suffocation/old Pyrexia. Later on, I got to listen to "Voracious Contempt", and I was a little disappointed. I thought it was going to be a memorable debut, but that production made the guitars sound cheesy and weak, lacking the power and aggression they had in their previous demos. Sure their sound is clearer than before, but this clearness steals them their powerful guitar sound. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean this album is weak or soft in any way, it's just that the final sound seems so polished and clear that the band loses the dark atmosphere they created in their previous demos.

Anyway, and despite of this awful guitar tone, the other instruments were recorded at a good balance. In fact, bass guitar is perfectly audible throughout the whole recording, even though it sounds a bit cold and somewhat jumping in some sections. Drums don't overwhelm the rest of the band, keep up the songs' pace and groove when needed. I think vocals are a bit louder than the rest, but that's not a serious menace since one can hear everything quite well.

Technically, they play well-executed NY brutal death metal with some hardcore influences. We can find a varied range of speed in this work, groovy slow heavy parts, mid-paced to fast sections, and even some furious fast blasting. Songwritting and riffing is quite good, although there're some simple (but not bad) riffs here and there, and solid song structures. 6 out of 10 tracks are from their previous releases, so here's some old-styled, yet good brutal death metal. It's in the 4 new tracks where the groovy hardcore influences are more recognizable, even becoming the band's landmark in their next releases.

I can't find anywhere that Suffocation-rip off style a lot of people complain about; both bands come from NY, and have been around for a long time now, so I think itś normal finding some similarities, as long as they played the same style of brutal death metal. And as to the band being considered by many to set the slamming death metal standards years before its world-wide boom, I personally don't see the point of that. Internal Bleeding is not really that slamming, and don't even as fast as those slamming bands out there.

"Voracious Contempt" was a good start for the band, since they have improved their style and skills all over the years. Maybe not their best album, but a fine debut from a fine bad.