Short sharp shocks in life come in a multitude of forms, most of them unpleasant. A pink slip delivered by e-mail. An eviction notice nailed to the door. A semi-truck T-boning your helpless car. A sudden severe headache that turns out to be a tumor.
With “Scum’s Karma” the Japanese gore-grind revivalists FesterDecay deliver their own short sharp shock, and it’s as ruinous as those examples above, but it’s also the kind of macabre mangling music that will bring fiendish smiles to savage faces. You’ll soon see for yourselves….
This new song is one of 14 tracks included on FesterDecay‘s explosive debut album Reality Rotten To The Core, which is set for release on February 24th by Everlasting Spew Records. It follows a sequence of demos, splits, and singles since 2016 that have already established these miscreants as accomplished purveyors of music that, as the album title signifies, is simply rotten to the core — and deliriously freakish.
They may be following in the exalted footsteps of Carcass circa Reek of Putrefaction, but their debut album establishes a mastery of the form, breathing hideous new life into that… carcass. Take “Scum’s Karma” as a vivid example.
The riffing is ejected with a foul and mauling degree of distortion, enlivened by crazed pulsating grooves. The bass sounds like the massive vibrations of a huge sewer pipe that’s being shaken to pieces deep beneath your feet. The drumming feels like axe blows to the neck and crowbar onslaughts to the spine. The vocals combine macabre growls and gurgles of cavernous depth and maniac screams.
And yes, it’s freakish in addition to being ruthlessly destructive. FesterDecay switch up the tempos, veering from spasms of violent insanity to a near dead-stop, followed by jolting chugs and stomps and a final convulsion or unhinged writhing and battering. One can try to imagine the kind of slaughtering mosh pits this song will stir up in a live setting.
If that song doesn’t get you hungry for the album as a whole, jump over to Bandcamp and check out two more tracks that are streaming there. At that same location, and via the label’s mailorder link, you can take your pick among CD, cassette tape, and digital formats (plus apparel), and a vinyl edition is expected in mid-2023.
Everlasting Spew recommends the album for fans of early Carcass (of course!), Dead Infection, Sick Sinus Syndrome, and Pharmacist. The fantastic cover art was created by 072.
PRE-ORDER:
[MAILORDER] https://bit.ly/3VEWdbr
[BANDCAMP] https://bit.ly/3hLhySp
FESTERDECAY:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063795272829
