From Mumbai, India hails Biopsy, a chunky, galaxy swallowing death metal three piece with plenty to offer the world.  In a shocking turn of events the band is comprised of vocals, guitar and drums.  That’s right folks, no bass.  To compensate for the lack of low-end, guitarist Akshay Verma turns his amps to the hogslop setting, while Shomeresh Shetty has such a blown bile-duct, spray vomit vocal style that there is more bottom-end around than I initially caught wind of.  Fractals of Derangement is the band’s 5 track debut, and it’s not in the business of wasting the listener’s time.  This is sick shit with plenty of versatility in the riff/drum interplay and enough stark tempo reversals to keep you from nodding off at the steering wheel.

“Hemolytic Crisis” illustrates the band’s penchant for grafting the bloody, medical grind ala Carcass and Gronibard onto the body of a death metal monstrosity (think Disgorge, Devourment and Cattle Decapitation).  This stuff goes from lightspeed destruction to slower, heftier hobbling within seconds as drummer Keshav Javadekar constantly fluctuates between anti-gravity blasts/double-kick and slovenly runs on the bass drum where he works his legs like an Olympic runner navigating a minefield.  The riffing follows a similar path utilizing fretboard shred and bloated, mid-tempo grooves that are stuffed with noxious swamp gas.  Meanwhile, Shetty belches, grows and squeals the lyrics as if he’s trying to fight himself out of the operating room with scalpels hanging out of his chest.  Maybe I’m nuts, but I could have sworn I heard some bass lines in the one faster section, but it could just be something happening with the lower strings on the guitar.  I’m going to have to look into that.

Severed tendon technical tendencies bleed like open lacerations during the most extreme parts of, “Anatomical Reconstruction,” especially felt on the frantic guitar solos towards the end of the track.  A few tarpit chugs are implemented here and there, but this is mostly a blast-fest loaded with tremolo, sweep picking and growls scooped freshly out of the toilet bowl.  You’ll find “Genesis to be a similarly organ splitting tune that dazzles with a combination of winding guitar technicality, furious blasts spilling over into precise tom rolls and some greasy, mid-tempo sewer clogs.  Once again I’m hearing what appears to be bass faintly in the background, but it could easily be a faintly tracked guitar line.

The title track is weighty, and gets a good DM thrash going.  It gorges itself on a feast of mid-paced murder, stuttering breakdowns, liberal palm-muting and some pinch-y harmonics before shitting out a whole fuckload of speedy goop.  If you’ve kept up with me thus far, closer “Surgical Symmetry” won’t disappoint.  It falls comfortably within the band’s framework of skin flay.

Fractals of Derangement is a helluva debut for the young, talented butchers in Biopsy.  The EP doesn’t overstay its welcome, and makes a clear statement of what the band is all about.  It will be a pleasure watching them develop as time goes on.  As it stands now, this a killer first entry into the death metal arena with over the top aggression, mucky grooves, intensely mangled tempos and wrathful verbal puke; a very nice release and worth checking out!

[Visit the band's website]

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