Tales of Necrophilia

Regurgitation. Old school brutal death metal KINGS. Formed in Ohio in 1994. These guys are very well known within the extreme metal underground. Their small but extremely popular discography has influenced tons of brutal death and slam bands. And in my opinion one of the most distinctive and brutal bands of all time. In their entire career, they managed to put out one demo and one EP. As well as one full-length. “Tales of Necrophilia”. One of the greatest albums to ever be released within death metal.

Right away this album is extremely aggressive and memorable. “Out of the Womb” immediately kicks things off with ruthless riffing and blast beats. The dense yet disgusting atmosphere instantly sets in. The album is fast, sick, and extremely well-written. You call each song apart on this record. Each band member is extremely talented and excellent and writing heavy and destructive death metal. Tons of rampant tempo changes and great vocal styles are used across the board. So it isn’t all blasting brutality. There is nothing soft or sweet about this record. It’s pure sickness and nothing else. For a short under 30 min recording this shit is fantastic.

One of the most memorable aspects of this album is the riff work. This album has very unique and odd riffing styles. The riffs across this album have such an odd crawling feeling to them. Much like Suffocation, there are tons of great grooves and those very distinct crawling riffs. They’re technical yet very blunt and straightforward. There are also tons of tasty leads and solos, the guitars also play with nasty melodies and pinch harmonics. While also drilling your skull to bits with chugging chords and breakdowns. Slam riffs are also used very frequently on this album. Basically, everything you can think of that is deemed “sick” in the brutal death genre is in this album.

The usage of tapping is also spliced in here and there. This album's essence is brutality. It has everything you would want in an extreme metal album. Ultra guttural vocals, memorable songs/riffs, a perfect drum mix, and gnarly bass and guitar tones. Each song is extremely unique and distinctive. Making this album stand out amongst the other bands that tend to blur and blend together.

Let’s talk about the fucking brutal production. This is how a brutal death metal album should sound. Absolutely raw and sick. The guitars have the thickest and meanest crunch. Giving them a fucking gnarly bite to them. The bass is perfectly mixed and can be heard across the record. The vocals are low and disgusting as fuck. This record also has a perfect drum sound. The snare has a perfect pingy touch, and the kick drums sound pummeling as hell. Nothing is drowned out and sounds 90s as fuck. You can’t get any sicker than this album in terms of gnarly production.

Vocally this has to be one of my favorite brutal vocal performances on any extreme metal album. Brain Baxter and Ben Deskins have both very nasty and extreme vocals. Each lyric is bellowed out with ungodly brutal intensity and ruthlessness. Brian usually does the more raspy shouts and growls on here. But both of them deliver guttural and deep gutturals on each track. There are good dynamics, vocal diversity, and once again pure sickness. The more squeal-type vocals pop up here and there as well. So there’s a good amount of each type of nasty vocal style used in this album.

The drumming on this album is perfect. Dan Baker has tons of great drum grooves, gnarly blast beats, and chunky double bass work. Much like the guitars and bass, there’s a bunch of nice tempo changes. Ranging from blasting frantic beats, mid-tempo grooves, and occasional slow movements within the songs. Everything is well put together and is so enjoyable to listen to. I will always put this on a pedestal as one of brutal death metal’s greatest bands.

Overall this album is perfect. I’ve always loved this album ever since I heard this album years ago. It’s brutal, fast, hooky, and sick as fuck. The definition of the word sick is this album. This is a heavily underrated gem within extreme metal. If you love death metal across the board and you haven’t jammed this. Do me a favor and change that. Jam this album and buy their fucking merch. A flawless masterpiece.

FFO: Suffocation, Broken Hope, Disgorge, Lividity, Deeds of Flesh, Gorgasm, Cannibal Corpse

I remember first hearing about this album from a youtuber named jimmy from the block a relatively big metal youtuber and Justin Horval CEO of Hell's Headbangers in Ohio who raves about this album as well. Jimmyfromdablock put this in his honorable mentions of his favorite brutal death metal albums. I decided to then go and listen to it on youtube because the cover art was nasty as shit (it includes a skinned skeleton raping a headless woman) expecting some stupid slam with sink vocals. I was shocked I heard this cunning, brutal, technical slab of savagery. After that I decided shit this is incredible and bought it off bandcamp.

The first thing I have to praise is Tony Tipton and Ben Deskins guitar playing abilities. They play very technical, evil, sounding riffs that sound like a mixture of Gorgasm and Suffocation with all the minor sounding melodies and diminished arpeggiated chords. I mean listen to track one "Out of the Womb" where they play these frenetic scale runs in the 2nd minute and there are your brutal death metal breakdowns as well. They play these melodic minor, and harmonic scale runs throughout the pieces and the drumming alternates between relentless blasts and standard thrash fills. The guitar playing is some of the best I've honestly ever heard in death metal. It's punishing to an extreme degree, relentlessly brutal, and it includes phenomenal neo-classical guitar solos imbued with melody and feeling put into them. The listener can clearly tell there was a lot of thought put into the solos themselves. Also listen to the outro track "Fetal Suffocation" it has beautiful melodies on the acoustic guitar.

The drumming is incredible as well by Dan Baker. It reminds me heavily of Kevin Talley of Dying Fetus the blast beats, the tom rolls, and ride cymbal usage. The vocalist Brian Baxter has incredible range in his death metal vocals going from very puke sounding guttural noises, to mid range growls to ear piecing screams. A lot of brutal death metal the vocalists only employ one vocal range puked gutturals and that's it. This on the other hand is unique in the vocal range including a multitude of different vocal patterns. Brian Baxter also plays incredible bass lines on the album while singing just listen to the first track.

The lyrics are typical brutal death metal affair gore, baby killing, graveyard sexytime typical stupid themes, but because of how utterly dark the music is itself it gives of a much more barbaric, relentless tone of inhuman savagery. A lot of brutal death metal bands play two note chugga chugga slam riffs with nothing else in between and have yoyo boy lyrics and baseball caps. This album though because of technical the music is it gives off a much darker and more serious vibe. Like oh shit! These guys aren't fucking around with this stuff they really mean to mutilate and torture me, then rape the dead body after mutilation. This album is a must have if are you into the really dark and obscene style of grisly brutal death metal. The only issue I have with this album as others have mentioned is that it has a very short run time. It leaves you wanting much more, but I guess because the album is that good it's a possible plus. It leaves you craving more from them but they pull back leaving the listener wanting to listen to it again. Overall, though one of the GOATS of death metal. I much prefer this over something like Devourment, Disgorge (USA), Internal Bleeding, or Cephalotripsy, it has much more substance. Listen to it!

From the artwork to the production, Regurgitation's "Tales of Necrophilia" has everything the old school brutal death metal fan could ask for. Drenched in elements of horror and groove, the mid-scooped guitars and guttural vocals are somewhat reminiscent of fellow classic alumni Cannibal Corpse and Baphomet. The lyrics, as you can imagine from an album with this title, are the standard in such a genre: infanticide by immolation, torture, sexy time in graveyards, and mutilation in general, be it genital or otherwise. So all round good stuff where that's concerned. The riffing, however, has a nice contemporary feel to it, reminding me of bands like Disgorge (USA), Gorgasm, Dying Fetus, old school Carcass, and Broken Hope; with the drummer keeping pace beautifully.

The only real drawbacks from this album, which are very few, are as follows: the first one being that it feels as though it's one song too short. The seven songs (plus one instrumental, which has a runtime of less than a minute) are decent lengths, and run over 27 minutes collectively, but the album flows so well that it feels as though it's being cut short just a little too soon. However, that could be intentional, as it certainly does leave you wanting more, as any great album should. There is also once point during the opening track "Out of the Womb", where vocalist/bassist Brian Baxter screams over a breakdown riff, which unfortunately cuts a little too loud into the mix, somewhat spoiling the atmosphere that they had so masterfully built up. Thankfully, it isn't to a point that's unlistenable and is quickly forgiven as he actually attempts to enunciate, whereas other vocalists in the genre have merely slipped into the habit of just gargling (whilst having gone through the effort of composing lyrics), injecting their music with a shot of monotony. Luckily for us though, by the sheer musicianship and brutality, particularly between guitarists Tony & Ben, who swap solos magnificently which one another, this album has all the heaviness a brutal death metal fan could want, from tightly wound blast beats to 3/4 waltzes a la Suffocation.

As catchy as it is horrid, this album truly does deserve to be on the shelves of metalheads the world over and then some. And if old school '90s death metal is your preferred piece of quiche, then Regurgitation will sit right at home. From its clunking bass, fanatic drumming, old school riffage, evil gutturals, and groove, "Tales of Necrophilia" still proves to stand the test of time more than 20 years later.

This is an often overlooked great album from the 2nd great brutal explosion of the late 90s. After releasing a mediocre demo titled "conceived through vomit" in 1996, they got Brian Baxter (ex-sodomized, gorgasm, ablated records), and Dan Baker (ex-sodomized) who obviously made a huge impression on the band since this album completely destroys the demo. They seemed to be making waves in the scene with tons of positive reviews, good sales and some fest appearances, but like most great bands, lineup changes and internal BS eventually would cause their demise. This album is a guitar players masterpiece. Having seen this band live, I can say that Ben and Tony are 2 of the most talented guitar players in the scene. This album features to me, a perfect mix of chunky beatdown riffs (not slams), and whimsical fretboard mastery that will leave your head spinning! Theres a dual vocal assault with everything from puked gutturals, to midrange lows, to sick ear piercing highs... The drums are good and I especially like the snare sound. These guys bring back the days of great solos in deathmetal, with a talented solo in almost every song, and even a bass solo in one of them! If you dont have this album, youre really missing out on something great. This is sick brutal deathmetal that is far from average despite the familiar sick gore lyrics and imagery. Mandatory!

Ben and Tony have since gone on to form NECROTIC DISGORGEMENT who have released an album on comatose records called "suffocated in shrinkwrap". If youre a fan of this album, you need to check that out too!! 2 thumbs up on both albums all the way around!