AN NCS PREMIERE: MUTILATE — “DECAPITATOR”

 

There’s a cold, cruel, primitive quality in the music of New York-based Mutilate, like the death-metal parallel to some massive night-stalking predator that can’t be escaped and can’t be reasoned with, and then there’s the added fear factor that the red eyes you see just before being mauled aren’t a product of the natural world.

The band’s new album, Contagium, follows hot on the heels of their 2018 full-length Tormentium, and is set for release on June 7th by Iron Bonehead Productions. A couple of songs from Contagium have surfaced so far, and we have one more today — “Decapitator” — which is a prime example of the primeval monstrousness that dwells within Mutilate’s music.

 

The massive distorted tone of the down-tuned guitar immediately creates an atmosphere of dismal oppression and unreasoning malice. The powerful drum tones are riveting in a different way, and in keeping with the music’s remorseless brutishness, and the growls are equally cold-blooded.

Apart from just sounding murderous, the song includes killer riffs with a jabbing and jackhammering quality, and the drum rhythms are compulsive (and accented by thrilling, explosive flurries). The otherworldly quality of the music is rooted, in part, in the sheer mauling and pulverizing monstrousness of everything described so far, but also in the ghostly, moaning leads that flare through this juggernaut of a song.

 

Iron Bonehead‘s publicist describes Contagium as a “crude ‘n’ rude” throwback to the waning years of the ’80s, when Death Strike, Hellhammer, Nunslaughter, and Goatlord were making their names”, and references are also made to later bands such as Benediction, Acheron, Usurper, and Sathanas.

Further evidence of Mutilate’s powers can be found in the two previously released tracks, “Vile and Disgusting” and “Eyes of A Child”, both of which we’ve included below, along with “Decapitator”.

For more info about the release, check these links:

IRON BONEHEAD:
http://www.ironbonehead.de
http://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions

MUTILATE:
http://www.mutilatedeathmetal.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/mutilatedeathmetalofficial/