AN NCS PREMIERE: UROBILINEMIA — “WRIGGLING CHRYSALIS OF METAPHYSICAL GRUDGE”

 

You’re about to hear the new EP of a monstrous Japanese band named Urobilinemia, which will be released by Gore House Productions on July 22. It’s a bit outside our usual wheelhouse(s). In fact, as I began listening to it, I wondered whether it was too far outside. And then I lost my mind.

When most people say they lost their mind, they just mean they temporarily misplaced it, or it escaped briefly but will come home again soon, happily wagging its tail. In my case, I fear that Urobilinemia have pulverised, pureed, and poisoned the contents of my skull so ruthlessly that reassembly may be impossible. How do you reassemble something that has been reduced to a quivering mass of goo?

 

 

I’m speaking metaphorically, of course. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself as I attempt to prevent my eyes from rolling back in my head from the mere recollection of listening to Wriggling Chrysalis Of Metaphysical Grudge, which is the name of this new Urobilinemia EP. At first blush, you may think the title makes no sense. But I’ve found after listening to it that it does make sense — and most of the things that used to make sense to me no longer do.

It’s the sort of music that could be used both to torture and unbalance well-adjusted people and also, like electroshock therapy or a frontal lobotomy, to jolt deranged souls into a state of catatonically blissful well-being. Also, be sure to put your pets and any small children in another room when you start listening; actually, it’s probably safer to send them to another town, or at least leave the door open so they can run down the street in an attempt at self-preservation.

 

In conventional though less evocative genre terms, Wriggling Chrysalis is brutal death metal, of a kind that’s mostly blazing fast, technically jaw-dropping, and explosively head-spinning. The riffs jab, hammer, skewer, and eviscerate; the drumming pummels and spits bullets at inhuman speed; the arpeggios alternately convey a convincing sense of insanity and a fluid sense of grace; and the vocals… the vocals are disgusting — an array of cavernous bestial growls and barks, regurgitative spewing, tortured pig squeals, acidic screams, and rancid gurgling.

And to amplify the mind-fucking qualities of the music, Urobilinemia salt the songs with unexpected twists and turns and spice them with a few other surprises that I won’t spoil — but I will encourage you not to leave the stream before you get to Track 6. Also, if you have any concrete slabs you’d like to bust up in a couple of minutes rather than spend hours strapped to a jackhammer, just point your speakers in their direction and play Tracks 7 and 8.

It may have already taken you as long to read all these words as it will to listen to the EP. So let me just sum up by saying that I have become strangely addicted to this EP. It’s a non-stop thrill ride through a combat zone populated by hyper-accelerated alien mechanoids and blood-lusting berserker monsters. Dive in and lose your minds.

 

The grotesque artwork for Wriggling Chrysalis is completely appropriate, and I bow my head in respect to Mei Maro, who created it.

The album was recorded and mixed at Urobilinemia’s home studio, which is quite an accomplishment since I assume the place is spattered with gore and knee-deep in disemboweled intestines.

It was mastered by Chris Garcia of The Morgue Music Studios (Stages of Decomposition, Bloodscribe, Cranial Engorgement) in Inglewood, CA. He hasn’t been heard from since.

 

This EP includes not only new songs but also four demo tracks taken from the band’s earlier split with 妖神楽 (Ayakasi Kagura). You can pre-order it via these links (on CD and as a digital download):

http://www.gorehouseproductions.com/#!urobilinemia/wdd9h
https://gorehouseproductions.bandcamp.com/album/wriggling-chrysalis-of-metaphysical-grudge-2

To follow the band and Gore House on the web, if you dare, use these links:

https://www.facebook.com/urobilinemia1
http://urobilinemia.wix.com/urobilinemia
http://www.gorehouseproductions.com
https://www.facebook.com/GoreHouseProductionsOfficial/