DEVOTED TO DEATH: VORE, UNCANNY, AND CATASTROPHIC

I like almost every kind of metal yet invented, though not to the same degree. Straight-up death metal holds a special appeal, and so periodically I need to return to the great swollen bosom of the death mother and nurse on the sticky, putrescent fluids that leak like winter sap, viscous and foul-smelling, from her maggot-swarmed nipplage.

Umm . . . I don’t know if that last sentence came out quite the way I intended.  Maybe it needs more work.  On second thought, nah.

Anyway, last night I sampled the music of three bands whose music is new to me, though the bands have been devoting themselves to death metal for a long time. I really liked what I heard from all three. There’s some eye-catching cover art in here, too. So, nurse on this music from Vore (Arkansas), Uncanny (Sweden), and Catastrophic (New York).

VORE

This three-man band have been churning out punishing music since 1994. They’ve self-released an EP and three full-length albums, the most recent of which is Gravehammer, which appeared late last year. But yesterday, the band announced that they had signed a deal with Germany’s AFM Records. AFM is going to re-release Gravehammer in CD and vinyl formats on July 20. That’s the news that grabbed my attention, and I decided to check out a song from Gravehammer that’s been released for streaming. And holy death mother, it’s a great song.

The song is called “Doomwhore”. The bass picking and cavernous growl in the intro set the hook quickly, and the crushing riff that follows it seals the deal. But damn, there are even more killer riffs in this song, including a low-tuned tremolo line punctuated with a cymbal crash that’s just sick, and the pneumatic rhythms are guaranteed to produce sore-neck syndrome. The vocals are gruesome, and the song includes a sweet, slithering guitar solo, too.

Vore clearly have a knack for writing and executing songs that are both bludgeoning and addictive. I’m really looking forward to hearing the rest of Gravehammer. Check out this mid-paced, doom-shrouded inferno:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovicQZUuEzw

Vore’s Facebook page is at this location.

Now, here’s the cover for the next release to be discussed in this post:

UNCANNY

Uncanny are another death metal band who got their start two decades ago. They originally came together in Sweden in 1990 and released a couple of demo’s, a split, and one album — Splenium for Nyktophobia (1994). After that, Uncanny disbanded.

In 2010, a label named The Crypt released a three-disc compilation of the band’s previous music under the title MCMXCI – MCMXCIV, and now Uncanny have reunited to create new music. Their first new foray into the realms of death is a recently released 7″ vinyl called The Path of Flesh. It contains two songs — the title track and “Creation’s Tomb”. The first of those songs is up on YouTube for streaming.

“The Path of Flesh” is a throwback assault of grinding, d-beat driven, corpse-strewn, Swedish-style death metal. It charges like a hell-horse at the beginning and then staggers into a funereal crawl before accelerating again to the finish line. It breaks no molds, if that’s what you’re after, but it has the satisfying sound of authenticity.

This 7″ comes in three editions: A black vinyl version, a green vinyl version which is exclusive to the UK’s Me Saco Un Ojo Records, and a white vinyl version that’s’s being exclusively distributed by Dark Descent Records. Uncanny have a Facebook page here.

That brings us to the final band in this post. This is the cover to their most recent album:

CATASTROPHIC

Catastrophic are a newer band than the first two featured in this post, having been formed in about 1999. But the band’s members have been involved in other outfits that go back further in time: Guitarist Trevor Peres has also been the guitarist for Obituary since 1988, and three other members came from Pyrexia, whose first demo was released in 1991.

In 2001, Catastrophic released a debut album called The Cleansing on Metal Blade. Following an EP released in 2005 (Born Into Bondage), Napalm Records released the band’s second album in 2008, Pathology of Murder. Catastrophic are supposedly still active, though I haven’t found any recent news about their doings.

Pathology of Murder was recently recommended to me by NCS reader skinbridge, and I decided to check out a track from that album called “Problem!, Reaction!!, Solution!!!”.

Man, I thought finding one song with a massive, bass-driven intro for this post was a nice bonus, but we get another one in this song. The rest of the song is a head-kicker and an ass-kicker, too. It’s grisly and thrash-paced, but also includes an old-school breakdown, some chainsaw-guitar mayhem, and plenty of hooks. Good stuff.

Here ya go:

Catastrophic have a MySpace page here. I haven’t found a Facebook link.