Sadistic Reflections of Blood

A surprisingly solid album, this, and a real testimony to the wisdom of checking out a band because they have an interesting name. Typically, I'm more of a fan of the unrelenting side of brutal death metal- Putiditry, Brodequin, Enmity etc.- but this is a fine and exceptionally catchy take on the groovier side of the genre; I can't fault it.

There's a big OSDM influence with the whole thing, and credit to Gurchick Tree for that. I'm not a necessarily one of those OSDM IS LIFE kind of people but hearing that familiar diminished sense of melody within a very slammy context is really cool. It's nice hearing a band break from the 0-1-3-1 pattern when the brakes are slammed on, and the riffs are really imbued with this memorability, this huge amount of catchiness throughout which certainly makes this a few more times memorable.

It's one of those albums that doesn't really have a weak point. Perhaps a few of the patterns within the faster riffs get a bit repetitive, but when you have slams as big as those through "Realm of Dehumanization" - that really slow moment around the 2 minute mark being a particularly massive moment- it doesn't really matter. Shit is well written- rarely do the songs feel like a riff salad, concise, and, perhaps most importantly, the album comes with all those caveman movements of pure, brutal enjoyment that make brutal death so enjoyable without ever slipping into total retardation.

Better production would certainly be rather nice- it's thick but still clearly a bit amateurish, and for something like this you need the chunkiest production possible. Regardless, this is still a really enjoyable little gem and well worth everyone's time.