FunATMWe all love a bit of fun at the morgue don’t we? I fondly remember that time…. Nope must heed the lawyer’s advice and not share things so willingly here as apparently it could get me in some sort of trouble. Anyhew back to the case at hand and I first heard of this band when they more than politely notified me that their debut EP was winging its way to me. They pointed out that although they are Swiss they were poor and posting it from France as it was cheaper. Talk about tighter than a corpse’s sphincter (but best not go there either.) Said EP indeed arrived with a familiar whiff of formaldehyde about it, I opened the jiffy bag with some good clean efficient butchery and slid the glistening boxed treasure out with the care and respect it deserved.

If you had not guessed from the band name that they play slightly none too serious brutal Death (with capital D) metal well hang your head in shame you obviously are not very good at this game. The EP starts with a lovingly crafted melodic instrumental ‘Funeral Overture’ which illustrates the band can practice with some semblance of both skill and moderation. It’s a little Morbid Angel in a way and a nice and surprisingly lengthy statement before ‘Faceripper (The Ballad Of Rudy) tears your very…. sorry too obvious. It’s done with a welter of bruising drumming, flailing guitars and gruff vocals before grooving down and cracking necks a bit like Dying Fetus battling it out with some old school Gorerotted. ‘Heretic’ has a punky snarl and rage about it as it Discharges with some furious d-beats and a layer of crust over the prevalent Cannibal Corpse of the songs main frame. Some high pitched yapping vocals join the fray allowing you to grind along in style. Slow and doomy sees ‘Dark Prophecy’ chundering down with morbid riffs and a restrained sense of style about it.

Everything has been serious so far but that’s all about to change as the band go for one of those shortest songs ever written with the longest song title. Yep we all been there before but still you can’t help but smile as it passes faster than escaping gas from a bloated corpse. As for the song title look it up. The title track has some quirky riffs before literally the song goes kersplat as it relates the unfortunate tale of various deaths such as “A stupid child, about to walk on the road. Watch out! Crushed by car, too, late!” pure genius lyrics. There’s also a cautionary tale ‘Pigfucker Feast’ for all you splatter fans who used to bring home the video store bacon and devour films like Pigs, Evilspeak and Razorback! As for ‘That’s The Way (I Like Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida) is concerned yes it is raking up the corpse of KC and The Sunshine Band. Finishing off with a cover of Social Disaster (the band members of this lot used to be in) ‘Lobotomie’ we wrap up and zip up the body bag of a brutally fun little disc.

This is a very well-produced mini offering and the work that has gone into presenting it both musically and physically cannot be faulted. I think the art direction is excellent but although I can see why the front cover art was used the back booklet artwork is far better and really striking and I would have had serious problems not picking that for the front myself. I reckon this band could be a very good match with our own Basement Torture Killings in fact I may see about hooking them up so they can cause some creative touring carnage together. Perhaps they can even share a Massoula whatever the hell that is?

(7/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fun-At-The-Morgue/317256088379421