Album Review: Avulsed - Phoenix Cryptobiosis
Reviewed by Eric Clifford
Foulness brews in sundappled Spain; a tide of blight crests the horizon. It’s been some time coming really; a plague familiar to Madrid, returned anew, faithful as an old hound. It’s hide bears scars; sites of infection, mottled and nacreous, where fur fears to sprout but in greasy clumps, 3 or 4 to a root, pus pooling about the pore. Its lips weep drooling sores, flaked skin stuck where suppuration inspissates into crusted horns. The stench is fierce and affronting, almost perceptible by naked eye alone as wavering distortions, as though the air itself shuns it’s acquaintance. Hobbling shrine of parasites! Flystewn, fleabitten, ticks worm through cragged cracks in calloused palms, lice jostle as a solid mobile mass, heaving like a lung. Vivid purple veins cable lanky, spasming limbs, channelling sludge from a poisoned heart that refuses to fail. The Spanish, if asked, will refuse to speak it’s name. a shake of the head; “no señor; Es malvado y claramente usaste el traductor de Google para escribir esto”. Yet local legend whispers of it, even if the locals themselves do not. From times of old, a past so remote to the memory of man that it can scarce be said to have occurred at all – the year 1991 – can the origins of this avatar of unwholesomeness be sourced. Who knows what evils soured the psyches of those behind it’s conception? We may never know; past this point, history retreats behind tantalising veils and vanishes from view. And yet…the name remains, and may be rendered intelligible to the ear by those who would speak aloud such base vulgarity.
Its name is “Avulsed”.
Phoenix Cryptobiosis is outrageously fun in way that felt immediately nostalgic, even if I didn’t fully appreciate why initially. I’d like you to cast a cataract-dulled eye back to the year of our lord 1994; not that I remember it particularly well, I was 3 at the time, but it was nonetheless within this year that a little group going by the jaunty moniker of “Cannibal Corpse” released one of their most celebrated efforts – “The Bleeding”. Routinely regarded as among the stronger releases within a discography defined by herculean strength, “The Bleeding” isn’t the fastest, or the heaviest, or the most technical, or even the most brutal of the bunch; but what it is, above all, is catchy as hell. And it’s that same instantaneous memorability that Avulsed seem to have siphoned for “Phoenix Cryptopbiosis”. Hooks abound in a frothing deluge of old school death. It flips with a perverse playfulness between noxious melodicism (“Lacerate to Dominate”, “Dismembered”) and the old-school thrash-but-meaner ethos of iconic albums like From Beyond or Scream bloody Gore (“Devotion for Putrefaction”), stuffing growl-along chorus bait into every crevice into which it can be wedged given appropriate elbow grease (“Guts of the Gore Gods”, “Blood Monolith”). There’s this wholly engaging swing to it, an irresistible bounce that has me robot dancing to myself whenever I have it on headphones, spasmodically flailing my way around the park near my home as my wife looks on in exasperation from a half mile away, trying to avoid being seen with me in public while wondering how many flushes she’d need to get rid of a wedding ring.
It’s a treacherous process to write death metal sometimes; all too easy to opt for pure brutality to the potential detriment of all else. As befitting an outfit as seasoned as this one however, Avulsed have the sense to ensure that songwriting remains at all times the foremost concern. As such, their work flows easily and naturally, selecting with a discerning eye the correct tool for the task at hand.
Observe: “Unrotted” honours the distant hardcore punk heritage of early extreme metal with a lucullen application of d-beats that transports me back to the glory days of classic Swedish death metal, all the while showering us with the sorts of simple but oh-so-delightful riffs that characterise those early ‘Corpse benedictions. Do you know what Phoenix Cryptobiosis feels like? An exceptionally good remaster of an album from some hazy yet fondly recalled yesteryear of yours. Something that retains that elusive but essential spirit of the thing but that polishes and refines it, blows clear the smothering dust and delivers it reanimated and vital once more. So much of it harks back to that initial surge of creativity in the early years of death metal, you catch nods to the founding fathers of the genre; the title track bows reverentially down to the giants upon whose shoulders it stands with Obituary’s rolling thunder riffs merging with the apocalyptic effusions of Morbid Angel in the echoing fretboard acrobatics of it’s guitar solo. Yet it never feels like cheap imitation; the passion to surpass competent but slightly redundant mere homage is evident in every note, every growl, ever snare hit hurled with the serious intent to punch the drumkit into the core of the planet.
I will say though that for however much I enjoy this release – and I really fucking do enjoy it – there are spots where it oversteps the mark. “Neverborn Monstrosity” has much to like about it, but the verse riff is a little too upbeat for its own good. It’s too bouyant, and instead of channelling saw-toothed animosity it’s instead somehow a little absurd; I listen to it and for some reason I get this ridiculous montage scene in my head of a dude frantically overturning all the furniture in his house in search of his car keys whilst a 3-wheeler full of like 15 clowns sits awkwardly outside. Also, there’s something about the construction of the song here that induces suspicion – listen to the way the pinch harmonic just appears out of thin fucking air at 0.55, 2.16, 4.17 and 4.22. It’s such an instantaneous arrival that doesn’t comport altogether with the rest of the riff that my bullshit radar is screaming like a fox having a multiple orgasm. I think (totally bereft of concrete evidence, to be fair) that what’s happening is that they’ve taken a pinch harmonic played alone and, using recording software, dropped it directly into the track where it wasn’t before. I can’t be sure but it would explain why doesn’t altogether natural. Also, there are points where the crash cymbals seem to waver a bit, sort of fluctuating in and out of audibility, I think because they’re clipping a touch. Not having run the album through any software of my own I’m not certain, but it would explain why the cymbals sound the way they do at times. For me, “Neverborn Monstrosity” is the most feeble song on offer here, and while it would be stretch to say I dislike it, I wouldn’t mourn its exclusion either.
Yet the crux of the matter is that Phoenix Cryptobiosis is a complete blast. It taps into your nostalgia without requiring it for a crutch, acknowledging its influences without being defined solely by them. It bulges with a slimy, necrotising corpulence, stuffed so full of catchy riffs that it’s stitches fray at the pressure of it. Occasional production blemishes and quizzical songwriting choices sidelined for a time, the remainder of Avulsed’s latest is cast iron death metal goodness. All the guts and grime you could wish to drown beneath liberally doused with a healthy dose of honest to goodness joy. I’ve really enjoyed my time with Phoenix Cryptobiosis, and I fondly hope that you will too.
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