Blasphemous Putrefaction – Prelude to Perversion

Share this on Facebook | Share this on Twitter

German Death Metal duo BLASPHEMOUS PUTREFACTION set everything up in the name. Brutal titles, subject matter, lyrical content, artwork. All the ingredients are there to make something extreme and with this being their first full length release, we’re going to see if they have hit the mark. The opening track “Prelude to Perversion” is filled with pounding drums and guitar feedback. It creates this looming sense of doom with its repetitive down tuned riff.

Immediately following this is “Necromantic” which is a blast beat filled track that actually can’t help but be good. The guttural vocals are very good, the guitar tone is heavy without completely losing clarity and the drums are very well played. The solo is also extremely well done, albeit cut short before returning in the latter part of the bridge. The song explores several different atmospheres and sounds in one short song and yet it all feels natural. “Blasphemous Ritual” takes a very different approach with its beginning, a much slower blast beat, if such a thing exists. It really showcases their doom influence in the main riff section. They take a breather and allow the great guitar tone and the pounding drums to do the work for them right until the end where it devolves into guitar noise and feedback, seemingly fading away but in reality, there’s more to come.

Track four, “Epidemic”, solidifies the fact that this does not seem to be any generic death metal band. There is a songwriting element that stands out in the guitar playing. The guitarist seems to be influenced by much more than just death metal. While his vocals are certainly death metal inspired, the riffs cannot be labelled under one genre.  This track in particular could almost be considered punk were it not for the guttural vocals and blast beats. “Sacrifice for the Dead” begins with a pumped-up intro that was made for getting ready to go all in. And that’s exactly what the track does. It’s riff and blast beat driven verses never slow and actually incorporate a lot of elements that makes it very catchy.

“Blooddrunk Skeleton” has a tremolo picked intro riff that is backed up by those pounding drums once again. The production on the main sections of each song are certainly passable, but in the ambient, build up sections it really allows the tone of each instrument to shine. Playing this good should not be masked by poor production and while this certainly wouldn’t be considered poor production, I am certainly looking forward to future releases with more attention paid to their mixing and mastering.

The album continues on with BLASPHEMOUS PUTREFACTION swapping between their blast beat, lightning fast riffing to their slow, ambient noise filled drone sections. The whole album is very enjoyable, especially considering it’s a first for this duo to handle every instrument. I look forward to hearing more from these guys release more music because in todays oversaturated music market, there are very few bands that can just stick to a genre without it sounding generic. This band manages just that, it’s a very familiar take on death metal that can also be accessible to people outside the genre. I find that extremely impressive in a genre that’s been around almost 40 years and yet we are still able to find bands that bring a new, interesting twist with them.

Musicianship: 8
Songwriting: 8
Production: 7
Memorability: 7