NECROTICGOREBEAST

In the crazy, swashbuckling world of slamming brutal death metal, NECROTICGOREBEAST are superheroes. Over the course of three studio albums, the Canadians have set lofty new standards for the entire genre. Harder, nastier and better produced than just about anyone else operating within the same guidelines, they have made records that have been consistently better than the rest. A four-track EP to keep fans busy until the next full-length assault, "Brute" resounds with authority.

It is also admirably disgusting. "Assault of Severed Genitalia" seems to be a song about being pelted with dismembered gonads and vaginal tracts; "Maggot Filled Colonoscopy" conjures images of rotten insides and the slow-motion devouring of some hapless victim's bowel; and although "Knuckle Deep Convulsions" is not entirely self-explanatory without a lyric sheet, you just know that those knuckles are going somewhere intimate and caked with coagulating effluent. Being lyrically foul is almost obligatory in this neck of the metal woods, but the difference between NECROTICGOREBEAST and a thousand other like-minded bands is that these boys have the musical chops to set off your gag reflex at will, amid levels of flesh-flaying heaviness that are just as horrifying as the subject matter.

All four of these fetid forays are utterly devastating, matching the peerless brutality of 2023's "Repugnant" album, but somehow even more punishing. The cudgeling riffs, seamless tempo changes and sinewy, eviscerating beatdowns are delivered with extreme, muscular force, but NECROTICGOREBEAST are astute songwriters, and despite being avowedly uncommercial by mainstream standards, there are plenty of moments that will lodge themselves into your skull for as long as it takes to be pummeled into submission. From the turbocharged hideousness of "Assault of Severed Genitalia" (watch out for flying dicks!) to that whole, unsavory business with the intrusive knuckles, "Brute" is an unrelenting display of superiority and prowess. There is a general consensus that Canadians are lovely, friendly people, but they may also have a few human heads, and maybe even a rectum or two, in the freezer. Be warned and enjoy the slams.