Finally; my longtime friend in stoolism and brutality Tim King returns to death metal. Tim played bass and sang with the Chicago 90s brutal/tech death band Oppressor and we became fast friends in the 90’s playing shows together. I remember one Internal Bleeding show with them and Symphony of Grief was like at a bowling alley or some shit. We had lined up our equipment and tables and chairs were getting knocked over. Was not a large crowd but a memorable one. Tim went and became successful with hard rock band, Soil, which while I respect the work I’m not a fan. Tim getting this death metal project together has brought a slight tear to this goombah’s face. The main reason is because this debut album destroys.

Embryonic Autopsy destroys us in 30 minutes with 10 songs. “Regurgitated and Reprocessed” opens immediately and Tim’s vox are more brutal and even going for more clogged sewer pipe vocals this time. The blasting us relentless as Arnaud Krakowka drums as if his life depends on it. Tight n super-fast blasting. Scott Robert’s plays guitar/bass/keys and Tim belts out super brutal gutturals. More brutal than the Oppressor days.

Anyway, before you can blow your nose “Cauterized Womb Impalement” begins with rumbling heaviness with ultra clean guitars which are super heavy, and not too much fuzz where it’s a mess and a pile of noise pollution. The crunchy guitars on this slower song will pierce your eardrums just like an ice pick would do. Scott lays out a nice guitar solo and then this slower crawling pit inducing song goes into the title track. Some buildup of voices right before the punishing double bass and then the spoken words over the atmospheric stop n start guitar moments via creative.  I enjoy this part because the band is super brutal. After repeating this part again then they rip into a raging blast beat until they slow down again. Check out the 1.45 section beat as it calls to mind classic 90’s brutal American Death Metal. What a rager!  The fluctuating speeds are intense with those atmospheric spoken word moments returning. I truly love this song.

“Upon the Mayan Throne” is the longest song but at only four and a half minutes Embryonic Autopsy slows things down to a crawl. Getting into a doom death style. Nice growl by Tim at the 1.05 moment as the song picks up speed by 1 extra mile. This song crawling song must be in their live setting it’s a head banging song that will cause heads to fall off in unison. I do appreciate the band staying at this speed for the songs duration. It’s too killer of a song and a blast beat would have ruined the flow.

“Splicing the Alien Gene” has a multitude of growls from Tim. He belts out those gutturals with supreme strength and they sound filthy and putrid. Naturally bringing more smiles to this guy’s face since gutturals are my thing! The 90’s eta classic death metal speed is exceptional and the drums are monstrous.

The rest of Prophecies of the Conjoined is equally brutal and the ending of the album with a short instrumental is ok by me. It’s slow and serene and allows the listener to catch their breath. The production and mix is perfect for this slab for of brutality. All instruments and vocals and various sound effects they throw in are clear. The music is well played brutal death metal and the album cover is striking and goes with the lyrical content of the album.  If you like super fast bands like Hate Eternal mixed with some pinches of classic American death metal with sprinklings of the 90’s Floridian death metal scene getting this album is essential. Welcome back to death metal Tim, ya bastid. I’m loving this debut!

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments