Hackled in Gore

Prepare for brutality en masse! Scrambled Defuncts return after 6 years from recording their debut “Catacomb Abattoir.” First things first, if you enjoyed that album, and were expecting “Catacomb Abattoir 2,” then you’re going to be disappointed. Thankfully, what they’ve done instead surpasses that effort by a million miles.

The tightness between all the instruments is particularly outstanding, considering the technicality and the speed in which they play. Every guitar riff, every bass line and every drum pattern is so rigidly placed that you could be forgiven for thinking that the band members have metronomes in their brains. I cannot even begin to imagine how many times they had to redo their respective parts. Nevertheless, the hard work has paid off immensely.

The bass guitar gets a lot of work in here, getting some creative low-end going. The best part is the end of “Flensed Battue” when it leads into “Pre-Natal Whittling.” It’s a perfect introduction. The guitars are tuned quite low, probably a notch too low considering the volume of the drumming. It’s a pity, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hear them. They’re probably some of the most varied riffs I’ve heard in brutal death, because I’m convinced the same riff isn’t used more than twice or three times in succession. They’re constantly changing, but not like Psyopus where it’s seemingly random…they have a cohesion that brings it all together. From the fifth track onwards, there is obvious melody involved. Look out especially in the eighth track, “Profaning The Crypts,” near the beginning.

The vocals are your standard brutal growl, but what makes these different is his accent. Try and follow with the lyrics in the booklet and I guarantee you will be lost, simply because his accent is much too thick to understand what he’s saying. The lyrics themselves mainly deal with killing/slaughtering children, which is quite a heavy topic, even for brutal death. You won’t be taking much notice of such a controversial theme, anyway, as there is too much happening.

One interesting aspect is the addition of various sounds and interludes that separate every track. This can either work well or fail horribly, depending on how it’s implemented. The good news is that it works well here. Listen to the outro of “Subterranean Slaughterhouse” for some chilling imagery of a woman who’s baby has been taken from her, probably my favourite of the album. The title track’s outro is a nice piano piece that leads well into the next track. The outro to the third track is an incredible bass line that leads into the fourth track seamlessly. I won’t mention them all, but every single one of them just work.

Now, the absolute best thing on the album: the drums. Max, also in No Emotions, delivers one of his best performances. Nay, one of drummings best performances! I have never heard drumming so precise, yet so technical. The performance here will always rank as one of the greatest I’ve heard in metal. One of my favourite sections is at about 3:35 in “Limbless Fatling,” with the snare rolls and blastbeat action, delivered with robotic precision. But his work all over the album is outstanding. In fact, the drumming is the aspect of the album I listen to most. I’m obviously flattering his drumming with concerning homosexuality, but the entire album goes from good to brilliant because of it.

With that out of my system, “Hackled In Gore” is a testament to the haters of brutal death in that it can still be done, and done well. For those who are losing interest in the genre, I urge you to listen to this. For those that enjoy the genre, if you don’t have this, you’re missing out big time.

Oh, and look out for the bass solo in “Limbless Fatling.” I missed it the first 10 times, but was pleasantly surprised when I realised it was there.

Best tracks: Subterranean Slaughterhouse, Pre-Natal Whittling, Limbless Fatling

EDITED February 8th, 2009: It has recently come to my attention that Max actually didn't drum on this release, but it is a drum machine. I am a little disappointed by that fact, and I've lowered my score a few percent because of it. It's still some great programming skills, and is still a fantastic album, though.