I reviewed Baltimore’s brutal death metal band, Visceral Disgorge’s sophomore album, Slithering Evisceration, recently and stated how much I loved the album and how they are one of my favorite brutal death metal bands.  I interviewed singer Travis Werner some years back and I was and still am a tremendous fan of their 2011 debut album Ingesting Putridity.  Since then they have lost band members and Steve Rosenzweig (RIP), their guitarist on the debut album, sadly passed away in 2014.  The band was unsure about going forward and I am happy they did decide to continue because Slithering Evisceration is crushing.  Now, is it as crushing as their debut album???  Jury is still out, since I have had the debut album for 9 years and that’s a lot of time to know an album and to this day Ingesting Putridity remains one of my favorite debut brutal death metal albums.

Visceral Disgorge’s label, Agonia Records have now reissued the debut album to bring this brutal monstrosity back to the masses and while most albums, which are reissued, usually contain a tinkering of the mastering, by remastering the album, the band took it one step further and actually remixed the album.  Hmmmm…..so what are my thoughts on tinkering with one of my favorite brutal death metal albums??  Well kind reader-please read below to find that out.

The debut, Ingesting Putridity has always had something that many brutal death metal bands still have trouble figuring out and that is the ability to write catchy and memorable songs.  “Sedated and Amputated” continues to be one of my favorite songs the band has ever written.  The brutal blasts and then the slow down at the 45 second part and then right into the blast and mid-paced heaviness all the while Travis is vomiting out some not so G rated lyrics.  Pure guttural bliss that has vintage 90’s era pinch harmonics thrown in to swipe your pathetic head right off that horrific and decrepit body of yours.  The guitar riffage is just spectacular with the 2.20 isolated guitar riff a thing of beauty-the Holy Shit moment, right when the smashing cymbals hit you over the head and then right into the blast.  Pure creative brutality and ferociousness.  “Necrocoprophagia” always had a nice soft buildup right before the blast and then the monster mid-paced part around the 1.29 part that if you’re not swinging and knocking people down, then you must have some sort of weird virus that is causing everyone to panic and buy toilet paper around the clock, because they crap too much.

But then let’s add the remaster and remix and things get a bit dicey.  The remaster adds quite a bit off bass and I love the extra bass sounds, normally, but not when I have to alter my stereo and decrease the bass volume in order to hear the album.  The remaster drowns out some of the instruments, burying Travis’ vocals in the process.  When I decreased the bass a bit, then yes things even out.  When I did that yes the sound, of course is better and the loudness is clearer. Yes I do appreciate the album is louder, nothing better than annoying the neighbors with brutal death metal so they start falling out of their windows.  But the remix is definitely a mixed back as well.  The album production gets cleaned up, by sounding more pristine and clearer, not necessarily a bad thing, however the speed across the album gets sped up.  “Sedated and Amputated’s” opening drum rolls and blasts are noticeably faster.  The opening part that slows from the blast into the isolated guitar riff, at the 25 second part, and then the incoming double bass and snare are much faster.  I did multiple side by side comparisons of both versions of the album.  In keeping with this sped up version of Ingesting Putridity it then has a similar style to Slithering Evisceration which is a faster album then the debut, but not any longer when you hear the reissue.

I prefer the original version of Ingesting Putridity.  The slower parts created more of an urgency and made the slams more monstrous.  I do not feel the album needed to be remixed at all, because it really did change much of the original sound.  The remaster, if a some bass was pulled back, would have been the way to go.  However, I must make the absolute point of saying this still does not detract from my love of the original album.  Hell, read my opening as I gush and vomit all over the place about it.  If you’re unable to secure the original copy then by all means get this reissue, because at the end of the day Ingesting Putridity still destroys.  I personally feel the remix and remaster was unnecessary.

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