A traditional American dinner consists of meat and potatoes, usually with a vegetable of some sort. It’s one of my favorite foods because it fills me up and that’s how I often view American Death Metal; comparisons could be made but I’m not really going to go down a rabbit hole here so think a band like 200 Stab Wounds absorbed some Macabre and then spewed out Chained to the Dead. That was almost a rabbit hole and then I edited it.

Chained to the Dead have returned to HPGD and the result is this nasty little fucker. Only Hunger Remains (also being the title of a track from Pungent Stench’s Been Caught Buttering). So there’s that… it sounds phenomenal courtesy of killer production from Backroom Studios and that sick as fuck cover art (done by Mortuus) that has been the background on my phone for a few weeks now, I’m not even kidding.

What we have is a nice, gory buffet of six incredibly brutal tracks packed up in an EP. It starts with some horror samples before the slow-burning riffs of “Flesh Hunt” come crashing down, a crawl through the gutted corpses of humanity and then erupting into a hypnotic blast section. It’s a bit reminiscent of the latest Fulci album.

“Eaten by Worms” is one of those strike first, ask questions later tracks that slow at first but then slaying with furious blasting like a Hail of Bullets if I  may be so bold. “She Bore a Brood” is my second favorite track after “He’s Just Meat Now”. It’s a head-down death thrasher that’s powerful as nobody’s business. The aforementioned “He’s Just Meat Now” has this life terminating blasting courtesy of Joseph Ott with some brutal riffing from Stephen Rasczyk.

I’m going to be honest – I’ve never heard Blood Duster. I know, I should be pilloried for that statement but it’s true; so going into “Blood Duster Double Feature” was a treat because I want to go and check them out, apparently they’ve been around for a few years so shame on me. I have been converted to Blood Duster in just a matter of minutes; isn’t music great?!

The last track is an actual Pungent Stench cover with “Games of Humiliation” from their (shocker) Been Caught Buttering it leads me to the conclusion that Chained to the Dead really loves that particular album. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, Martin Schirenc is doing well with his lineup and is keeping their memory alive.

At the end of the day this is a perfect album for the season and a solid Death Metal monster that leaves me wanting more from them… maybe a full-length in the near future? Anyway, I’m happy as a pig in shit with Only Hunger Remains and can only recommend this to you constant reader, you know who you are; you worship Pungent Stench and Sanguisugabogg. That dirty fucking Death Metal, you know what I mean, this needs to be in your collection.  Play it at your next church social, loud.

[Visit the band's website]

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