Seeing home grown talent is always pleasing, and by home grown in this case I mean country grown. There seems to be a good swelling of bands coming from the UK’s underground recently, most notably for me would be Raised By Owls, Foetal Juice and Mechromorph to mention but a few. It is this sort of talent that makes me happy as it means a lot of support slots at gigs are being filled with solid artists whom deserve to bring in a crowd. At the moment I feel like Metal is alive on just about every level, from the smallest pub to the largest arena it’s an exciting time to be a Metalhead.
Speaking again of promising new artists from the UK we come to Body Harvest from Bristol. I had the pleasure of witnessing this act live not so long ago and I have to say I was blown away and went out of my way to listen to their debut Futile Creation from 2014. Since then their talents have been recognised by none other than the mighty Comatose Music who now unveil the bands sophomore effort Parasitic Slavery. Can their crushing Death Metal blasts strike a chord with a wider audience or will they be left to rot upon the ever growing pile of putrid Extreme Metal waste? Let us engage this madness fully and dive in.
After the as ever unnecessary introductory instrumental that borrows influence from Nile and later Death we go head first into the relentless battering of Body Harvest. Will Pearson’s drumming is an instant winner, so perfect it almost appears inhuman. Couple this with pounding guitars and thunderous bass and you’ve got a powerful end product. Now despite it’s ferocious speed Parasitic Slavery is at it’s heart a Death Metal record as opposed to Brutal Death Metal. Of course a lot of influence is derived from Death Metal’s more savage cousin but to call this Brutal Death Metal would be unfair. When you bring in the hideous vocals you are left with an end product that comes across as a mixture of Necrophagia, Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse.
Consumed By Tyrants crushes us further with the addition of galloping drums and a maniacal solo, a true whirlwind of destruction. You might feel as if this album sounds a touch repetitive and truth be told you wouldn’t be wrong, but each and every track offers up something of interest making this non-stop chaos a thing of hideous beauty. The title track brings a great deal of memorability to the table feeding the more traditional flare of this Death Metal carnage. The Prophet even brings us melodic influence, the whole of this album is simply insane. The best way to sum up this album is like Death Metal on crack that is as close to Grindcore as Death Metal can possibly get.
Overall the album is utterly savage, if you’re a fan of Brutal Death Metal this is sure to be a pleasantry. Equally if you have a penchant for earlier Death Metal verging upon the brutal in the vein of Suffocation, Broken Hope or Cryptopsy then this is for you. The only downside to Parasitic Slavery I would say is its relentless nature which makes the album a double edged sword as this is equally the attribute I most enjoy, perhaps the problems lies simply within the length. After over thirty minutes of practically no let up your brain is reduced to mush, yet once again this is a double edged sword. Why not make up your own mind? I guarantee this will be one of the harshest Death Metal album you hear this year.
(8/10 George Caley)
Leave a Reply