Dripping Decay is the best kind of decay. Wet, sopping, moist decay. A sexy band name for a sexy collection of songs. Maybe it will make you drip by the end, too.
If you couldn’t tell by that first paragraph, I have problems. Metal is the only thing on this planet that makes me happy. Sparing you the details, I have been at the edge of the cliff, and the only thing to stop me from jumping is listening to metal or knowing a new album is coming out. Specifically, lately, it’s been this old-school death metal revival. Dripping Decay falls firmly in that category, and I bought this one once I heard it.
Mostly, you know what you’re getting here. However, out of the old-school death metal revival, or the new wave of old-school death metal, Dripping Decay stands out with some serious punk energy. The first three tracks are a fine example of this, including “Abundant Cadaveric Waste.” Just listen to that opening. Somehow this has that punk frenetic energy, despite having a winding guitar sound and furious blasts. It’s all said and done so fast, too.
It’s not until “Bay of Blood” when I hear a little doom, but it’s only at first because of the deeper vocals. However, listen up, bitch. Not much doom. There’s just a slow crawl there for maybe the first 20 seconds. It’s still over fast. Just like your first time… or your next, more than likely.
The “longer” songs here are only about 3 minutes, including the first of those, “Watching You Rot.” It’s more of a slow grinder, with Reifert-esque, sexy-ass, moist as fuck vocals, and that trademark Autopsy lurch. This one will get the heads nodding as sort of a reprieve in the live setting, but it does pick back up to its normal pace around two minutes and ends on some disgusting sewer vocals.
The real longest tracks aren’t until the end, with “Chemical Lobotomy,” track 11, and “Limitless Sacrifice” two songs later. This album is only 37 minutes and 14 tracks, so that should tell you how the rest of them go. The best of them is certainly the latter. Although it’s not the closer because there’s an outro afterward, perhaps it should have been. It has a nasty sludge/doom riff, and an almost glacial pace for a a minute. However, unlike most of the others, it goes back to the crawl a minute later, with some excellent bass rumbles. Then, it just kind of slithers its way out.
After all of this and you have the GALL to ask how I feel about it? How dare you! It’s great. Dead and Dripping have created an excellent, filthy slab of old school death metal. The closest comparison this year would be Coffin Mulch, and I reviewed it with the same enthusiasm. I hope this resurgence never ends. Cheers, Dripping Decay. I’ll probably see you on the road.
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