Sadistic Reflections of Blood

You know what American state gets too much credit in brutal death metal? California. No one ever shuts the hell up about how great Disgorge and Deeds of Flesh and Condemned and Cephalotripsy are. Let's talk about New Jersey for a minute.

I'm honestly kind of surprised New Jersey (along with other East Coast states like Virginia and Massachusetts) don't get more attention in the death metal scene at large, because all the bands I've heard from there have not only consistently been above-average in terms of quality, but they all have a unique sense of style and flow that's pretty hard to find anywhere else in the brutal death metal scene. Between December Aeternalis, Waking the Cadaver, and Dripping, New Jersey has been delivering pretty consistently awesome death metal for quite a while now, and The Gurchick Tree display with Sadistic Reflections of Blood that they're no exception to that rule.

This concise little EP is actually pretty unique as far as brutal death metal goes. I guess the best comparison to be made here would be the odd, sludgy melodies and rhythms of Formulas-Heretic-era Morbid Angel mixed with the same sort of slam influences one would find in Short Bus Pile Up (that is to say, OSDM riffs with catchy but not completely retarded slams at work in between). Aside from that, other entertaining little oddities abound, like the occasional low and heavy creeping riff which brings to mind old Finndeath bands like Demigod, and the wiggery, beatdown-influenced type of slams which the East Coast scene in general seems to love so much. The Gurchick Tree navigate through these various styles surprisingly naturally, with momentum being built up in energetic, jerky riffs and periodically released through crushingly heavy slams.

The Gurchick Tree are very concise writers (nothing on this EP breaches the three-minute mark), which works to their advantage. The songs don't seemingly play twice or overstay their welcome; typically an average Gurchick Tree song will start out fast and riffy before quickly, yet subtly and logically evolving into a jerky chugging section, which might then give way to a full-on chug, and pick back up to a riff before finally dropping slowly into its end position, which is usually an absolutely devastating slam. The band use a fair amount of blasting sections, but aren't afraid to settle into a mid-paced riff that grooves just as well as anything else here (check out that one in the middle of "Inject the Morphine", you'll definitely know it when you hear it). I think that's one of the coolest things about Sadistic Reflections of Blood: it doesn't sacrifice its grooviness in the process of varying the songwriting. It's like The Gurchick Tree simply exist in an alternate reality where groove is merely a constant law of physics which affects everything, like time or space or gravity, and only chose to specifically release a groovy brutal death metal album in our dimension because groovy pencil sharpeners or groove-laden kitty litter wouldn't sell as well.

The vocals are above average as well. The Gurchick Tree's vocalist primarily communicates in a low, gruff, and yet sonically satisfying bark, with slurred, somewhat bree-ish gurgly purrs acting as occasional accents or backing tracks. It's not entirely stellar, but it doesn't immediately disappoint in any way. Even more impressive is the absurd amount of catchiness thrown into the actual vocal patterns. The vocalist has enough tone and variation to stand on his own as an element of the music, but the catchiness is a more-than-welcome addition to the band's songs. Even when Sadistic Reflections of Blood is in riffing mode, the vocalist is essentially making slammy rhythms with his throat over the guitars. As I've said, everything about this EP is built to groove as hard as possible, constantly. The band are honestly executing their slams so well that they don't even need the snare syncopation I usually expect from slam death metal bands nowadays. They get around perfectly fine without using any of it whatsoever.

It's rather impressive that The Gurchick Tree manage to sound so crushing because in all honesty, their production job is basically working against them throughout the length of the album. While it's not exactly what I'd call a detriment, it sounds pretty garage-ish and raw. The chunkiness and weight is still there, probably just as much as the band can have it be with their presumably amateur equipment, but I think this sort of stuff would benefit even more from some louder, slightly clearer guitars which retained the thickness but simultaneously gave the sound a bit more immediate punch. There are a couple of live tracks tacked onto the end of the EP which have surprisingly good production considering what they are, as they have more-or-less the same level of audio quality which the studio tracks possess (which, again, isn't exactly bad, just lacking and deserving of better considering how cool the songs are), and they clearly show that the band are good at transferring their energy to a live environment. The blasting sections of The Gurchick Tree's songs, in particular, are absolutely monumental when played live, even if they aren't that sonically massive.

"(..)" kind of irritates me with its irritatingly amateurish, meandering sitar playing, and kind of sucks as an interlude, but that's really just about the only outright negative thing I can say about this. Honestly, this seems like something I could safely chalk up for the category of "brutal death metal for people who don't like brutal death metal"; it's riffy as all get-out and is amazingly catchy without relying on chaining slam after slam after slam. If the somewhat underwhelming production job doesn't turn you off, all of you should definitely check this out as all seven of the death metal songs here are nothing short of masterfully composed.