(In this feature Chris Luedtke introduces our premiere of a new EP by Chicago’s Bifid Corpse, which is being released today via Bandcamp and features a logo by Warhead Art.)
Since 2016 Chicago two-piece Bifid Corpse have been punching out heavy, punishing tunes that largely walk a fine line between death metal and grindcore. Frantic blasts, brutally heavy guitar, gruff throat-ripping screams and growls. On top of that, sprinkle in a little bit of beatdown and the occasional doomy section and you have an idea of what you’re walking into. After a slew of shorter releases, a three-way split with Surfer James and Pythian, it looks like the band decided to go out and smelt a bigger hammer, namely their latest release Real Raw Death.
The title could not be more fitting. Bifid Corpse have cranked up the heaviness and recording quality without sacrificing any of the rawness. Real Raw Death is an immediate sledgehammer shot to the speakers. Opening with “Severed Skewed Consumed” the band lead in blasting and swinging. The heaviness and riding that grind/death wave sets up the album well.
Then in comes “Devoid.” The Corpse put on the grind gloves and go in for an absolute beatdown of a track and in true grind fashion finish in under a minute. And then they decide to do it again with “Recorpsed.”
Despite being blanketed in blasts, the band also unleash some really slow doomy stuff at times. “Putrefied Earth” sounds like something one might hear on a Primitive Man record. The track lugs and hurls slow riff after slow riff and the song just continues to intensify. It also serves to break us up from the blasts. “Numb II” has a similar feel. It starts slow and drags like knuckles across concrete for about half the track and gets its grind mask on, only to circle back around to the crushing doom.
The album concludes with “50 Shades of Gore”, a kind of culmination of all that the album has been building to. This is where Bifid Corpse takes off and goes hard. The album intensity has been heavy and brutal enough, but this track practically dons a new weapon. The track starts off slow and unassuming. It is doomy, it is heavy. And then the drums cut out, the guitar starts to lose its mind and the band grind like wild beasts until going out on rumbling feedback and a riff.
If there is a space between Primitive Man and Vermin Womb, Bifid Corpse occupy that space. Real Raw Death is a blaster of an album that hits like ramming into sheet metal. And it is out right now.
https://bifidcorpse.bandcamp.com/album/real-raw-death