Album Review: Various Artists - Acts Of Sadistic Cruelty
Reviewed by Daniel Phipps
Four acts all with their own releases already to their name (Kill Everything, NecroticGoreBeast, Virulent Excision & Gorepot) team up to showcase their wears back to back under the quite fitting title Acts of Sadistic Cruelty. Each band bringing a series of tracks which are not for the faint of heart and serve one purpose which is to totally pummel you with brutality.
Kill Everything - Opening up the split are Texas’s Kill Everything who I’ll be honest get the split off to a disappointing start. Just like I found with their debut full length from 2018 Scorched Earth they fail to really hit home and just provide fairly bland slamming death metal which doesn’t really gain any serious momentum. Outside of a couple of moments over the three tracks what you are offered does little to get your attention which has to beg the question if they didn’t have such a rich history of previously playing in killer bands would anyone actually pay attention to this band?
NecroticGoreBeast - Following the release of one of my top releases of 2021, the French Canadian four piece came back with more phenomenal brutality. To quote my review of Human Deviance Galore “They bring a series of big bully riffs that will do everything but come up and steal your school dinner money.” Well it’s safe to say they are stealing your dinner money then waiting for you at the gates after school. The power of the huge sounding riffs and monstrous vocals dominate the three tracks, you still get the bands dark humour thrown in and it’s not just slam overload they continue to be able to provide just a great all round and brutal offering. If you look at the Slam style of death metal it’s becoming apparent that NecroticGoreBeast are one of the bands who are continuing to improve rather than just fade into stagnation.
Virulent Excision - Illinois based Virulent Excision change the dynamic of the split with their offering by providing 2 punishing tracks of all out straight up brutality. The band who are not as heavy on the slam front just got all out in providing a straight up slab of death metal full of great riffs, rapid drums and monster vocals. Don’t let the fact that they are only offering 2 tracks for their part of this split as Virulent Excision really leave nothing on the table, and just alliterate during both tracks. This is also the final release from the band's current line up so it’s easy to say that departing members have gone out on a massive high.
Gorepot - Finishing up the split is Taiwanese act Gorepot. The project which is a solo venue from Larry Wang provides straight up deathgrind nonsense. Over the 4 tracks which treats you to about 6 minutes in total offers utter filthy riffs, inhuman vocal patterns, some fun samples and is topped off with ridiculous over the top drum programming. It’s short, nasty and really hits the spot, it just ends too damn quick, but that is death grind I suppose. It does not take away from how much of a fun overall listen the 4 tracks are over their short run time.
On the whole this is a cracking split, it’s full of all the relentless brutality that fans of brutal death metal will thoroughly enjoy.
