For once, my inherent skepticism of anything "OSDM"-branded from the last, I dunno, 8-10 years or so was misplaced here!
CORPUS OFFAL are a new
band risen from the recently deceased CEREBRAL ROT, who I thought had a
lot of potential, but could never write a record that I'd listen to from
start to finish. Anyway, getting to it - this is dark death metal
mostly of the mid-90s variety, so think MORPHEUS DESCENDS' later
material, some second-fourth album INCANTATION-isms (squealy pinches,
sudden tempo changes from fast to slow), alongside some tasteful
demo-era DISMA and early Finn death influence. The inclusion of some
pitch-shifted vocals, fast blasts and a couple of evil metal laughs
(always welcome, get outta here if you think otherwise) prevent things
from getting too samey, which is an easy trap to fall in given how
played-out 90s style death metal is these days. It's actually kind of
difficult to describe in a meaningful way how this band differs from the
rest of the herd, since every micro-split-genre has had a bunch of
worship bands crop up, but I can say that the lack of boring mid-pace
plod definitely helps. The demo has a natural but clear mix that
basically sounds like a band mic'd up in the jam room, which is, if you
ask me, how demos and EPs should always sound, and this one was recorded
straight to tape too. Two songs of dank shit recommended to any fan of INCANTATION, DISMA, ABHORRENCE and the like. Could definitely have used another song or two but what's on here is promising.
LISTEN: