EP Review: Gorpulent - Total Fucking Slam Demo 2025
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
We - at the Edge - can’t get enough of Slamming Death Metal, and with the dust barely settled on this year’s UK Slam Fest anniversary bash, along comes the three-track demo from international Slam band, Gorpulent.
From as far afield as the United States, Finland and here in dear old Blighty, Gorpulent deliver a demo that doesn’t waste time messing about, rather gets down to the business of serving up some filthy, oozing riffs and inhuman sounding grunts.
Opening track, Honey this Gallon Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us, arrives with mid-paced tempo and a doomy vibe, with Necrophilic Beatdown, Epitomectomy and Parasitic Embodiment grunter, Drake Gambill switching between trademark gutturals and a few cleans. Limey, Joe Mortimer, of Crepitation and more other bands than you could shake a stick at, adds his dense bassline going into a grotesque interlude, exiting into a remarkably hook-laden end section.
Area 51 is for Lovers follows, riding a cosmic wave and coming with some gravity-generating weight; while Drake’s voice creeps, Invirulant guitarist, Derek Ryan, slice through and take the song into a hearty, jigging tempo for the briefest of moments.
Manning the drum stool is one-time Cumbeat, Fuck-Ushima and Torsofuck percussionist, Ville Minkkinen, who keeps the whole thing ticking over and gets to cut loose on the demo’s heaviest and most evil sounding couple of minutes: Taking Kakarot to The End of The World Party.
Still not breaking the speed limit, Kakarot… blends its dark menace with insane vocals, as the band recruit Clayton Meade of San Diego’s Condemned to come along and join this particular party.
Total Fucking Slam is a title about as subtle as the music contained within and, let’s face it, finesse is possibly the last thing you expect from the illegible logo and Lovecraftian entity adorning the record’s cover. It has all the heavy-hitting beatdowns and face-tearing riffs you could hope for in less than nine-minutes, without sounding like a demo.
Often, collaboration between established musicians, flatter to deceive and ‘Supergroups’ rarely come to equal the sum of their parts. Be it only a three-song demo, but I’m going to say that Gorpulent’s oozing filth is a breath of fetid air and promises much for future releases.
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