Album Review: Cannibal Accident - Nekrokluster
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
The Finnish extreme metal wrecking machine that is Cannibal Accident deliver Nekrokluster, their third album and, in doing so, have unleashed a ferocious beast upon the world. A hybrid of old-school grinding speed and dirty death metal, Nekrokluster is a fearsome way to spend half-an-hour of your life, but one that, for those of a similar mindset, will plaster a massive smile across your face.
The songs a stylistic mix of genres, with some favouring grind over death and others vice versa. Whereas tracks like Lets This World Be Done and The Meanest Fish to Swim With exemplify the combination of approaches and allows Cannibal Accident to play with expectations, others have their feet more firmly in one camp or the other. Sexual Matador – likely to be one of the few times cassinettes are included this year – is built on the foundations of solid death riffs and guttural growls.
Alternately, Nekkroluster’s opening salvo is the all-out grinding attack of Coprofeeling, filled with high BPM drumming and instant bluster.
But, rather than being simply a vicious death/ grind assault, Cannibal Accident have cleverly added some curveballs into their cacophony. Wonderwall of Death, Delete the Elite and Speedspring manage to include beat-down sections and are not without a smattering of groove. There something of a Hardcore tinge about Corpse Positivity and Haista Vittu Ihminen and, amid the deathly-grind you can distinctly hear some solid Thrashy chugs and a tip-of-the-hat to Slayer on Travelling Through Flesh and Manipulative Violence.
Mellanköttbullar’s acoustic intro does herald something different, but not quite in the way you think it’s going to be. No track on Nekrokluster displays Cannibal Accident’s manifesto of putting death metal and grind together with such success as this; sweeping in scope, Mellanköttbullar switches from big, heavy plodding DM to frenzied grind to the extent that it gives the song a massive feel.
But, fear not, for Nekrokluster does not turn in to a free-form jazz exploration and normal service is resumed, with Kindergarten Fritzl and Maggot Nest being about as subtle as their titles suggest.
For their third outing Cannibal Accident have delivered a vicious musical assault, uncompromising in its intensity and spewing filth with every note. And, for this, they should be rightly applauded.
