Piles of Human Debris

This is a pleasant surprise, I must say. Vomit Stain turns back the clock to the years of 2007 - 2009, to that time in brutal death metal history when Sevared Records graced the world with bang-on classic releases such as Putrid Pile's "House of Dementia", Meathook's first dump on mankind "Infernal Torture", and Viral Load's "Decade od Deepwoods Debauchery". Vomit Stain's first full length release emanates that same atmosphere, giving me those exact tingles in the gut that I had when listening to those albums mentioned.

The 'Stain deals in a form of death metal that relies on a sturdy mixture of brutal midtempo slamming parts and speedy uptempo hammering ferocity. Held together by a roaring death grunt alternating with piercing shrieks, the band go through an album consisting of varied tracks, while being heavily reliant on competent riffing. Every now and then the guitars veer off into a kind of thrash metal infused territory, with these parts reminding me of Dark Angel somewhat, adding a smidge of old school spirit to the brutal death metal Vomit Stain has on offer. While doing this, the band is giving winks and nods to bands like Malevolent Creation, Solstice (the Florida ones), as well as to Incubus's "Beyond the Unknown" album too, giving the album a nice familiar feel. Because of this, "Piles of Human Debris" sounds just that little more accessible than your usual brutal death metal band, establishing a sturdy formula of equal parts brutality and old school aggression, which works well throughout.

Also lending a hand in creating this solid piece of death metal mayhem, is a production that despite sounding very contemporary, does not veer into over-produced digital trickery too much. I agree that the drums and the guitars have somewhat of a processed feel hanging over them, but it doesn't diminish the album as a whole, making it easy to look past that point of critique. The music retains its menacing edge and stays aggressive throughout, and let's face it, it could've been way worse, for sure.

Vomit Stain fits in well between the acts mentioned above, holding its own with ease. There are of course some little things that could've been done better, but listing these off would simply be nitpicking, and there's no use in that. This is simply a release that serves up a technically proficient form of brutal death metal with a 90's old school vibe permeating it, and if that sounds like your bag, just dig your teeth into this solid slab of delicious numbskullery, because this rocks!