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6 Jan 2016

Krotchripper & Mass Murder Messiah: "Split"


The brutal death of cavemen
Brutal death metal as a genre has had a huge surge in popularity in the last few years. The genre has been subjected to much musical advancement and has changed from the lo-fi production of the 90's to a more clean sound during the 00's. Krotchripper and Mass Murder Messiah in a sense represent much of what modern brutal death metal stands for.

Right from start to finish this split delivers the unrelenting blast-brutality that you have come to expect from the slamming brutal death metal bands of today. Seldom does this release ever slow down, and mostly only to make room for the few samples that are scattered around the tracks.
Krotchripper delivers great slamming parts with groovy headbang-forcing riffs and guttural throat-shredding vocals. While the riffs by themselves aren't very varied or memorable, they fit the concept well and provide a certain feeling of flow and consistency. This creates an atmosphere where Krotchripper's part serves well as one long session rather than individual songs, with the final track Echoes of the Trollish Wake being the notable exception as this track stands very well on its own. It's a brutal force feeding of slam riffs and guttural vocals with few surprises, but who listens to brutal death metal to be surprised anyway? Krotchripper is downright solid as rock.

With gurgling guttural vocals, more intricate song structures and fast as hell blasting drummachine, Mass Murder Messiah continue the same fast-paced brutal death metal that Krotchripper started out with. Though many elements are recurring on this second part of the split, there are many subtle differences other than the sound itself. Mass Murder Messiah's expression and execution seems more rooted in the technical part of the genre, composing songs of greater length and musical advancement.
Compared to Krotchripper, Mass Murder Messiah's part of the split is more varied, both in terms of tempo and songstructure. Shaun Lacanne of Putrid Pile fame (and also label-mates on Sevared Records) makes an appearance as guest vocalist on Kiss the Muscle. A nice touch along with the groove-laden riffs the group puts forth.

"Coupled with the gruesome Mike Majewksi (of Devourment) cover art, this is exactly what you would expect."

Annoyingly there's a noticable difference in audio levels between the bands. Production-wise they're a bit different from each other as well, but only to the extent that fits the bands' individual style. Be that as it may, Krotchripper and Mass Murder Messiah fit well together as split material. Coupled with the gruesome Mike Majewksi (of Devourment) cover art, this is exactly what you would expect. No holds barred brutal death metal with slams aplenty, just the way my primitive mind likes it.

7/10



Released in 2010 by Sevared Records

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1 comment:

  1. Nice quick review. I might even go look those bands up! Thanks for enlightening me.

    ReplyDelete