So I got three cassettes, the first 3 releases, from new label, Gurgling Gore. So rather than review the 12 songs individually, I thought I’d combine all 3 into a Cassette extravaganza!!!!

First up is Wharflurch’s 5 song debut Lurking Doom EP. Hailing from Florida, the curiously named duo (a theme for these releases it appears) , Wharflurch, play a form of heavily Autopsy inspired, mucky, crawling death doom (something we will discover is another theme with these 3 bands), that reminded me a little of Accidental Suicide‘s sole 1994 release, Deceased. Autopsy ish crawls, sewer drain vocals and the occasional blast beat or creepy , haunted house atmospherics. The 5 song 20 minutes, is the longest of the 3 cassettes and sticks to the pretty rigid, sickly formula, but certainly delivers a solid 20 minutes of putrid death/doom with the likes of “Kosmosa Kophums” and “Sulphur Hell”.

Next up is another duo, Alabama’s Writhing Shadows, and their 4 song debut EP Flesh Magic of The Haruspex. Also playing a doom/death, but with a thunderously downturned, cavernous tone and more death than doom. There are still a few moments of horror movie atmospherics such as the little acoustic break in the standout tracks, “Cursed Entrails” and “Veins of Prophecy”. “Severed Limbs Reflect” is a more direct death doom lurcher and “Dissected by Fate” is a straight-up rumbling Bolt Thrower sounding rumbler.

I’ve saved my favorite for last, the mysterious Maine duo (‘Meatsack’ and Vomitous’) known as Seep. Though only 3 songs , Souvenirs of a Necrosadist is 17 minutes of absolutely stunning, top-notch crumbling death/doom, with a guitar tone from the bowels of the earth. Much like US death metal act Ruin, the production is thick and moist a fuck, and makes for some supremely heavy moments, especially when they lock into a muddy, mid-paced groove such as crushing opening of “Boiled in Piss” of the close of the EPs best track “Noose of Entrails” (with Jeffrey Dahmer sample..). It’s so goddam heavy….

Seep is a band I’ll definitely be on the look pout for, as well as Gurlging Gore as a label that looks to be locked into a style that they are hammering home with slurpy, icky, devastating efficiency.

[Visit the band's website]

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