THE ROTTED
Anarchogram
Anarchogram IndustriesTrack listing:
01. Drink Myself To Death
02. Dawn Of A New Error
03. Iron Fist
04. Propaganda
05. Deathcrush
06. Out Of Hand
After the demise of GOREROTTED, a good grind and ultimately death metal band in its own right, vocalist Ben McCrow and guitarist Tim Carley decided to follow their hearts and form THE ROTTED in 2008, which would prove a very wise decision. On debut album "Get Dead or Die Trying" the British punks in them came to the surface, taking the death metal foundation and building upon it a house of nihilism. "Anarchogram" is the sound of THE ROTTED coming out with all guns blazing and taking not a single prisoner in the process. It is the logical next step down THE ROTTED's road to humanity's ruin.
The two new tracks, "Drink Myself to Death" and "Dawn of a new Error", represent the perfect blend of violent UK punk and death metal. Both rip, tear, and eviscerate with the kind of scorching riffs that'll make your hair stand on end. The tempo/riff shift during one part of the former is a stone-cold neckbreaker. The four bonus tracks are the result of each member picking a song to cover by a band they wanted to "personally pay tribute to for inspiring them to play extreme music in the first place." In most cases, covers are little more than tolerable and occasionally fun, but THE ROTTED's take on MOTÖRHEAD's "Iron Fist", SEPULTURA's "Propaganda", MAYHEM's "Deathcrush", and ENTOMBED's "Out of Hand" is unbelievably fitting, which has nothing to do with rearrangement of the songs (they stay true to the originals) and everything to do with cranking up the amps and fucking going for it. "Out of Hand" in particular just feels right. When McCrow sings "Jesus Christ! Lord of flies! In disguise!" even the pacifists among you will immediately turn mad dog mean.
Some will argue that giving a score of 8/10 to an EP with only two new songs and four covers is a bit much. When those two new songs are blistering ace cuts that take heads off and the covers the equivalent of THE ROTTED making a classic track its bitch, trust me, the score is more than justified. "Anarchogram" is a warning that you damn well better be paying attention because when the sophomore full-length is released you'll be in a world of hurt. Just accept your fate and assume the fetal position.