I admit I was quite disappointed when I read that Edgar’s label released Karnarium‘s discography without even mentioning anything since I released that band’s first 7″. Not that I needed any royalties, but at least a free copy and an email of courtesy was the least he could do. Nonetheless, I will be objective when judging his band’s newest work.

The cover artwork is not my piece of cake. The computer 3D effects are really out of my schema, I really enjoyed the autopsy on the first album and the sculpture in the second one but starting from the third album, the vintage looks seemed to disappear and now we got this new work from Phlegeton which while full of gore, really looks too shiny and modern for an early Carcass inspired band. Rot and CGI don’t really go hand in hand, no matter how sick you make it. And there is not even a lyricsheet inside. Pff.

But coming to the music, the good shit is still crammed in like maggots on a rotting bowl of viscera. Edgar’s vocals are very sinilar in style to those of Antimo, same deep froglike gargles with occasional phlegmy leaks, which are still perfect for the onslaiught. Even the mix is excellent. The recording is maybe a little less compact than on “Goremassacre Perversity” but still way cleaner than the earliest works. But what’s good, the clearer sound does not really impact the sewage barabarity of their music. The drummer is still one of the heaviest weights in the biz, able to pummel the skins like few else. I noticed a few metallic extra dissonant melodies in the mix, which were really not needed, but it’s good to hear the black flame is alive.

Cannot tell much about the missing lyrics, but the song titles sound sick enough, while non exquiste pathological fantasy as in the beginning. They seem to follow the leads of the previous “Necroholocaust”. Overally speaking this is good shit, still extremely complex gore-death-grind if with some quite geeky keyboard exploites which do not fit the place at all. Surely at the same level as the third album, and we’re talking about big standards here. The closing song is a jewel, go for it if you should listen to one song only.

I admit I don’t like extremely much of this demo except for the honesty of calling it an Ep despite the over 25 minute running time. The Cd itself is cheap silver disc but both layout and design are decent enough, save for some evident jpeg loss on the artwork, but for a demo, who can complain. The band comes from the Finnish western town of Kannus (population 5.000!), and it shows – eh – there is even a guy with a Kalevala shirt (which is like seein’ a Greek with an Odissey shirt or an Italian with an Aeneid one). Well I guess it’s some band’s maybe…

Incarnate describes itself as Death Thrash and I mostly agree. There is a thick groove in the heavily segmented riffs, and a couple of Exodus-like choruses appear also. What don’t appeal me much are those gremlin-like vocals. Starting with song two they tend to get more varied, but I really cannot manage to like them at all. Just lacking some punch. The songs are fast and thrashing though, and definitely mature, with multilayered riffs, arpeggios and the whole range of metal stuff – even some ripping solos. There is a strong slope of quality in the recording between the first three tracks and the rest (if it’s not my stereo), but one can hear everything quite clearly. This is mostly stuff made for heavy alcoholic mosh than straight Death Metal, which means I am sure someone (maybe someone into Bestial Mockery or other similar semi-retro band) is going to like this. Anyway, I remain of the idea that some real 80’s clean but raspy vocals would fit better the mix.

In short, not my stuff, but good for a night of mosh. Advanced enough without being inexcapably technical or lacking kick.

Well. First off the Cannibal Holocaust soundtrack intro is maybe a bit too long (just above 2 minutes) – I’d rather listen to the real album by Riz Ortolani than a cheap excerpt if you know what I mean – but the idea is nice. Musicwise speaking, Putrid Whore does not play goregrind despite my expectations. The cover art is pure porn vulgarity and all the porn thing makes one believe it but in general the guitar riffs are mostly bold Brutal Death with some slam and a bunch of accelerations than sludgy sick grind. The vocals are froglike deep with some squeal a la Devourment here and there. Generally quite good. The sound is surprisingly healthy for a product that looks so cheap (xeroxed cover and plan Cd-r support), there is a gross use of photoshop tricks but the overall effect works I believe, that’s the “last minute goregrind” style after all. I didn’t like much the boring humour in tne titles like the parody of Spongebob etc. Really overused IMHO.

One funny but a bit annoying thing is that the tracks of the band are not split in two parts but instead are inserted in intervals, so you get all odd numbers with Putrid Whore and all even ones with Whore Evil. Eh eh. Nice.