France’s Putrid Offal were one of France’s early death metal/grind bands with a number of obscure splits and demos between 1991 and 1994, but it’s taken them until 2015 to release a full length album, which essentially re-records most of the material from the bands 90s discography and adds a couple of covers for good measure.

Now, back in 1991, when Putrid Offal formed,they had a clear sound in mind as General Surgery released Necrology and Carcass released Necrotism, and both are huge influences here, certainly More General Surgery. Though Carcass’s lingering 1989 influence of Symphonies o f Sickness‘s is  much more  prevalent . Take one look at the song titles like “From Plasma to Embalming”, “Purulent Cold” or “Organic Excavation” to see that and the music does a bang up job of creating that gurgling, gore drenched 1991 sound, even if updated with a 2014 production, and less ‘medical’.

13 songs, 30 minutes (plus two throwaway  covers in SODs “Freddy Krueger” and “Sane Men” from Dutch 90s industrial rockers Nerve), so don’t look for any long developed track this is a classic burp ‘n’ blast death metal/grindcore assault from times of yore. But as with Necrology and Symphonies there’s some order in the chaos with cleverly catchy riffs and grooves albeit drenched in viscera, bile and retched dual vocals. The likes of “Suffering”, ‘Birth Remains”, “From Plasma to Embalming” (which more than just an homage to Carcass’s “Ruptured in Purulence“, and has Loudblast’s S . Buroes providing some guest vocals) short bursts of “Symptom” and groove of “Rotted Flesh” are awesomely nostalgic. Especially to someone like me who adores Necrology, as it was essentially Carcass played with  Stockholm death metal styled production.

If you want a more primal, raw 90s sound, in addition to the rerecorded material, this double CD release also includes Premature Necropsy, which is a remastered compilation of all 18 tracks from just the 3 splits with Agathocles, Exulceration and the 6 way split Obscurum per Obscurius. So there is basically a lot of duplication of the same songs, but the more raw sounds of Premature Necropsy still has some nice moments with a pure, unfiltered sound.  So there is a lot of music here, even if a lot is double up., but it’s a cool package (literally, the packaging and artwork is top notch) overall and certainly a nice throwback to 1991.

[Visit the band's website]

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