“Everyone’s Doing Shitty” says my home state’s own Mutilatred in the opening track to their new album Determined to Rot. I concur. Everyone except for the band, it seems as the hype with their new release is somewhat strong. This is another one of those bands like Sanguisugabogg and Undeath, who gets a lot of hype and because of that, a lot of hate. No hate here for this no frills, brutal death metal act, whose goal is to choke you out like that sasquatch-looking entity on the album cover.

I have to say the first three tracks on this album fly by in about 6 minutes. God damn, there’s no messing around here. It’s just blast beats, low vocals, and your ass getting kicked. It’s safe to say that you already know what you’re getting at this point.

Not that it’s much different than any of the previous mentioned tracks, or frankly any of the ones after it, but “Shitted (Out)” has become one of my favorites. Maybe it’s that nasty death gurgle at the beginning, or it could be that snare that seems to stop everything in its place and cause a stutter about 30 seconds into the track. Despite being on the obvious death metal side, that snare has a bit of that brutal slam, tinny sound. You know the one.

There are few tracks around the 3-minute mark, but we don’t get into any longer songs until the last two, the title track “Determined to Rot,” and the final track which is simply called “Outro.” At over 8 minutes, one could be mistaken for thinking the former is the band spreading their wings and trying something different. Well, you thought wrong… kind of. At a little over 2 minutes in, the death metal goes away for an industrial sounding section which drags on far too long, thinking the track and in fact the album itself are finished. Just when I’m thinking; “Fuck, how long is this going to last,” I can hear the amp feedback, and a stomping death metal riff is back. It’s a solid ending beatdown section, except that…

It’s not the end. As I mentioned before, “Outro” is. Try to keep up. This one is nearly 6 minutes and consists of the same type of industrial section to begin as the title track did in the middle. By “same type,” I mean it’s an exact copy. I can see why this also has “bonus” in parentheses. Maybe this won’t be on what everybody who doesn’t have my extreme privilege of being a reviewer hears. In fact, I would bet on it.

So, at 13 songs and 39 minutes, including the bonus and extended title track, that still makes the average song length around 3 minutes. So, to be clear, that means most of them hover well under that mark. I have to be honest in that I am going to be seeing these guys live in June, along with a ton of other incredible bands at the Into the Darkness Fest (fucking Macabre, guys…) and was hoping this album blew me away. It didn’t and I’m sorry. It’s overall just kind of fine. Maybe as I continue to listen and the fest gets closer, I’ll change my mind, but as of now, if you made me choose between last year’s Sanguisugabogg, this year’s Undeath, and Mutilatred, I am taking the first two.

[Visit the band's website]

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