AN NCS PREMIERE: FESTERGORE — “GLASS CASKET”

The attractions of gore to the modern human mind are deep and abiding. Visual representations of disembowelment and dismemberment long pre-date the advent of moving pictures, but of course film provided a vivid and still-thriving new medium for the rendition of disgusting torture and unhinged slaughter. Representations of gore in greater and lesser degrees of specificity have also fueled both fiction and non-fiction writing, as well as photography and the graphic arts.

And of course fixations on the degradation of the human body in other ways have gone hand-in-hand with depictions of gore, both real and imagined — degradations such as those caused by disease and post-mortem decay, implemented by the array of tiny creatures for whom our flesh grudgingly provides host-bodies and nourishment.

And of course, as lovers of extreme metal well know, our collective fascination with gore and bodily degradation extends beyond the art-forms mentioned above. It extends to and inspires the making of music, the more frightening and repulsive the better.

Undoubtedly, scholars of various stripes have attempted to explain why human beings are so morbidly fascinated by these subjects. We can’t be bothered to verify this, or investigate the theories, at least not today, because today we celebrate the fact of it, as represented by the music of a death metal band from Staten Island, New York whose name leaves no doubt about their inspirations: Festergore.

It’s one thing to depict gore and the organic busyness of decay in visual or written media, it’s another and greater challenge to do it through music, where the awfulness is left entirely to our imaginations.

Doing this now is easier than it once was, because avid metal fans have already come to associate the subject matter (and its supernatural associations) with certain stylistic formulations, and in the case of Festergore they’ve drawn on those, drinking deeply from the poisonous wellsprings of such bands as Autopsy, Morbid Angel, and Demolition Hammer, as well as the likes of Immolation, Malevolent Creation, Suffocation, Monstrosity, and Deicide.

They’re not alone in doing that, of course, but what they’ve done with their influences is very, very good, as made manifest through their debut album Constellation of Endless Blight, which will be released on November 29th by Personal Records.

That’s an excellent name for the album, because the music is indeed a constellation of blighted forms, as the album track we’re premiering today demonstrates with horrifying power.

As its name suggests, “Glass Casket” is a transparent coffin of horrors, but it seems to represent not only the ghastliness of the remains but also the violence that took the life and the hungry processes feeding upon it — and it features a guest appearance by guitarist Anthony Bramante (ex-Nuclear Assault).

The rhythmic propulsion of the song is immediately bone-shaking in its pounding and rumbling heaviness, and the riffing, which is slathered in filth, brazenly whines and feverishly chews, hideously exultant in its grisly ministrations. As one might hope, the vocals are themselves monstrous and ravenous.

As the horrors unfold, the guitars maniacally writhe and squeal, reaching a fever pitch of derangement in a fleet-fingered, shrieking and moaning, guitar solo that’s an exhilarating paroxysm. Meanwhile, the rhythm section put on their own electrifying (and relentlessly punishing) show, like a field recording of a high-speed avalanche.

But there’s still more to come — a thuggish pile-driving segment that will work your neck, laced with piercing lead-guitar mania and slithering riffage; jackhammer rhythmic blows and gruesomely groaning chords; another solo that freskishly loses its mind; an abundance of head-exploding drum-fills… and a closing bit of gurgling ghastliness.

And so the song proves to be not merely hideous and horrific, but mind-bending in its permutations, spine-fracturing in its assaults, technically very impressive, and such an all-out eye-opener that it’s enough to make you at least momentarily forget all those venerated band-names we dropped earlier.

 

 

Constellation of Endless Blight will be released by Personal Records on CD and digitally, and it will also be released on cassette tape by Iron Fortress Records. For more info, check the links below.

To further tempt you into a craving for Festergore‘s blighted constellation, we’re also providing a stream of the first advance track from the album, “Cryogenic Decay“.

PRE-ORDER:
https://personal-records.bandcamp.com/album/constellation-of-endless-blight
https://www.ironfortressrecords.com/

FESTERGORE:
https://www.facebook.com/Festergore-100066507560109/