OUR LIST OF 2011’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 4

This is Part 4 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

For fans like me who are addicted to old-school, Swedish-style death metal, 2011 was a very good year. We’re in the midst of a revival, and it doesn’t show any signs of abating. One of the best releases of the year in this grisly genre was the second album by Sweden’s Entrails, The Tomb Awaits. Entrails originally came into existence in 1991, became moribund by 1998, but revived beginning in 2009. Their latest, Dan Swanö-produced offering reflects Entrails’ authentically deep roots in the scene.

As we wrote in our review of the album, “The music is a gargantuan beast, dripping with the remains of its last grisly meal of suppurating human flesh — and it’s a headbanger’s delight, too. . . . Dynamic vocals that are deliciously horrible, perfectly toned guitar-and-bass combos that sound like giant earth-moving equipment scooping up disease-infested masses of corpse meat, the booming assault of heartless drums, a surrounding aura of voracious evil — what’s not to like? The answer: Nothing. It’s all good.”

Entrails and their labels Dark Descent Records and FDA Rekotz gave us the chance to premiere a song from the album called “Remains In Red” along with the review, but “End of All Existence” is the most infectious of many catchy beasts on The Tomb Awaits. It’s also one of the most infectious extreme metal songs of the year, in my most humble opinion, so it’s our next addition to this list:

“End of All Existence”:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/08-End-Of-All-Existence.mp3|titles=Entrails – End Of All Existence]

Happily, the New Year is going to bring more Entrails, with a forthcoming split release by Entrails and a band called Ominous Crucifix. You can hear clips from the split HERE. It sounds disgustingly good.

For our second song today, we’re staying close to this genre, but not four-square within it.

Eight years have rolled by since the last studio album by Exhumed. The current incarnation of the band includes only one member of the original band that started life 21 years ago — mainman Matt Harvey — but he recruited some top-flight cohorts for the recording of 2011’s All Guts, No Glory: drummer Danny Walker (Intronaut/Jesu/Uphill Battle), guitarist Wes Caley (Uphill Battle), and bassist Leon Del Muerte (ex-Intronaut). As a unit, they do not fuck around. They simply lay waste to all before them.

Their brand of gore-crusted deathgrind slashes with razor-edged riffage, pulverizes with a hard-hitting drum and bass attack, and injects flesh-eating bacteria straight into the bloodstream with deliciously diseased guitar soloing. The combination of wretched screaming and filthy gutturalization ties an intestinal bow on the package, making this resurrection of Exhumed a pretty gift indeed.

No Guts, No Glory is one of the many albums I thoroughly enjoyed this year but never got around to reviewing. To make amends, I’ve picked my favorite track from the album as the latest addition to this year’s MOST INFECTIOUS list — “As Hammer To Anvil”. Check it out; these dudes play like they mean it:

“As Hammer To Anvil”:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/02-As-Hammer-To-Anvil1.mp3|titles=Exhumed – As Hammer To Anvil]