I dug the 2014 debut, Nightmare Vortex, from these German, Autopsy lovin’ ( Slaughterday is a song from the bands Mental Funeral album ) fiends, but for some reason completely missed the 2016 follow up, Laws of the  Occult, which has been rectified since getting this EP for review, and its a little barnstormer of an EP

The release includes 2 covers and 4 new songs to tide you over until the next album, and it continues the band’s sloppy, visceral Autopsy worship, with big, loose, sickly riffs and a twangy, sinewy bass. The only thing missing is a more unhinged Reifert ish howl and shriek as vocalist/drummer Bernd Reiners has a more standard, though still imposing deep death metal growl.

The four new songs are all in line with the bands past two releases, and improves upon the already solid songwriting.  The title track instantly recalls Autopsy’s first two albums with a urgent punky opening, salvo and is followed by “Wasteland of Demise” which starts with a classic crawling, sickly wheeze before a killer mid song romp opens the festering wound. “Phantasmal Death” is the EP’s longest song at almost 6 minutes with a nice variety of hacking, festering ooze and cantering, puss filled death metal. “Cursed by the Dead” has that  nice mid paced, sloppy sway and stagger that I loved about Autopsy.

The two covers are not the usual or what you’d expect. First is Trouble’s “Victim of the Insane” allowing Slaughterday to exercise their even slower, doomy chops a little  and it works well with Reiners’ death metal bellow.  The second is a killer rendition of Amorphis’s “Grails Mysteries” from The Karelian Isthmus, which shows two things- Amorphis were pretty darn raw early on, and Slaughterday know a good song when they see it, doing it justice and it fits well into the bands overall sound.

Abattoir is a rare EP that’s actually worth the $$- a 25 ish  minute release, with a good mix of new songs and covers that make it worth picking up.

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