Album Review: Organectomy - Nail Below Nail
Reviewed by Daniel Phipps
One of the bands firmly at the front of the New Zealand brutal death metal scene are Organectomy. Hailing from Christchurch and after over 10 years of creating their brand of death metal the band are set to release their third record Nail Below Nail which will be released via Unique Leader records.
Organectomy gets classified under the “Slam” banner and where they do use plenty of slam riffs throughout, Nail Below Nail is not a one dimensional cookie cutter slamming death metal record. Organectomy's creative use of these riffs allows the record to have a quite fresh sound to it, in a style which over the last decade has become a shell of its former self having a band who can refresh the style is always going to seen as a bonus.
Production wise this record sounds huge meaning the absolute face smashing brutality of a track such as “Ill Conceived” comes across like sheer audio punishment however the record also allows the more subtle touches that Organectomy offer come across in the appropriate way. Nail Below Nail does offer some of those more subtle and intricate pieces of musical craftsmanship at times during the record especially during some of its earlier tracks, leading into the excellent instrumental piece in the middle. Vocally this record has a real wretched vocal style, yet also strangely structured in the fact that frontman Alex Paul has great pronunciation of his vocals it reminds me of Travis Ryan on the early Cattle Decapitation records but with an even more guttural edge.
If you're not really into slamming death metal don’t let the slam tag put you off checking this album out. It's a well crafted and interesting brutal death metal release, and if you're like me and a bit jaded by the term and sick of god awful deathcore trying to disguise itself, this record will give you that straight up nasty brutality you will be craving.
