This album starts out promising enough, with a nice chug riff backed by some pounding double bass. But once the overly-nasal, high-pitched pig squeal of vocalist Jaymes Grundmann kick-in (a stylistic choice that’s unfortunately overused through the entire album), you might find yourself reaching for the skip button. This is brutal death metal at its most basic, and in a niche genre where it’s hard to stick out, these guys do anything but.

The slam/groove riffs are at their most caveman basic, and nothing you haven’t heard before. The drumming is solid, but the overall production on this album blows, with no real bottom end and just a quiet mix overall; be prepared to turn this one way up if you choose to partake in it. With songs such as “Fermented Concubine Ingurgitation”, and “40 oz. Facefuck”, the lyrics troll the usual subjects of misogyny, death, and gore. There are a few decent slams in this album, made more powerful by a needed bass drop to make up for the poor production, but there’s nothing even close to hang with the heft and granite of the latest Katalepsy or Unbirth outputs.

This album clocks in at just less than 24 minutes, which is almost EP length. It’s a good choice as there is not enough decent songwriting to go much more than that. It’s unfortunate that the best part of this album is the artwork. Comatose Music is known for their brutal death bands, but they have much better ones than Expurgate, namely newcomers Logic of Denial (which I will also be reviewing). I can safely recommend even diehard fans pass on this, as you won’t be missing much.

[Visit the band's website]

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