AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ANTROPOFAGUS — “METHODS OF RESURRECTION THROUGH EVISCERATION (M.O.R.T.E.)”

 

Prepare yourselves for utterly relentless punishment, coupled with utterly electrifying speed and precision in the administration of the beating you are about to receive. In other words, prepare for a full stream of the new album by Italy’s Antropofagus, aptly titled Methods Of Resurrection Through Evisceration.

If you’ve heard the advance tracks that have appeared leading up to the May 12 release of this album (including the two we have premiered), then you will have a good idea of what awaits you. But that still won’t adequately prepare you for the cumulative impact of these 10 explosive songs. And “explosive” is the right word to use, because the album has been produced in a way that causes it to detonate (repeatedly) with staggering power, and with a balance and clarity that enhances its galvanizing effect without detracting from its stunning brutality.

 

 

The album’s first track, “Whirlwind of Initiation”, is an instrumental opener that’s eerie and ominous, occult and militaristic. And it’s the last chance for a breath you’ll get until Antropofagus reach the end of their cover of Malevolent Creation’s “Living In Fear”, which is the closing track. After that opener, the band execute a strategy of destruction that combines pile-driving grooves and malignant, swarming riffs — a blindingly fast and inhumanly cold and precise method of death metal annihilation that’s part mechanistic demolition job and part bestial feeding frenzy.

The songs are propelled by a drum attack that spews bullets and mortar blasts at near-inhuman speed, coupled with bass notes that hit just as fast, and feel like a length of rebar being vigorously applied to the back of the neck. The riffing is usually just as turbocharged and maniacal, augmented by shrieking and squealing guitar eruptions and eye-popping solos that slither, spiral, and go into full-on face-melting mode. But you can also depend on being subjected to a big dose of bludgeoning in the midst of these cyclones of warfare, with those grooves getting close to slam territory at times. And while all this instrumental murder is being inflicted, the lyrics are barked and roared in a voice that’s just as inhuman and brutal.

While catching a breath is something you can forget about doing, there are places in the album where the band pull back on the accelerator, such as the stupefying but highly mosh-worthy breakdown in “Chants for Abyzou” and the gradual slowing to a crushing stomp that finishes “Praise To A Hecatomb”. And the band don’t forget about melody either. While the percussive rhythms in the songs might be the main source of the music’s catchiness, the melodic accents get their hooks in the head, too (a prime example being the dismal little melodic motif that worms its way into the title track).

In a nutshell, this is top-shelf brutality, executed with a high level of technical skill and a thoroughly murderous spirit.

 

 

The album was recorded and mixed by Davide Billia at Mk2 Recording Studio and mastered by Fabio Palombi at Blackwave Studio, and the result is evisceration delivered with maximum power.

Methods Of Resurrection Through Evisceration will be released on May 12th, digitally and on CD by Comatose Music and on vinyl by Everlasting Spew Records. Pre-order via the links below.

CD (and related merch):
Comatose Music
Antropofagus

Vinyls:
Everlasting Spew

Digital:
Comatose Music

Facebook Links:
Antropofagus
Comatose Music
Everlasting Spew Records