Album Review: "Grotesque Creation" by Fetid Zombie

Grotesque Creation

When I think back to death metal, I'm transported back to a bedroom in 1992. My friend Will was into death metal.

I'd never heard of this kind of music and it was disgusting, brutal, and just over the top.

Vocally and lyrically, it was really hard to take! I was just a lad of 16 at that point, though still very metal.

A couple of years later, many of the greats and originators of the genre were in my music collection and even some not so greats. I was beginning to see the future of metal.

I recall a time when my friend and I were discussing metal and how was it going to get heavier? Well, I had no idea at that time that 7 string guitars existed, but what about 8 string? Then what happens if you detune them to Dropped B! Add triggers to the drums so the blast beats sound like AK-47s!

Mark Riddick aka Fetid Zombie

Heavy metal artist Mark Riddick has a part time job:

Death Metal.

Now, before we being, if you think what I described in the last paragraph is perfect and the greatest thing to happen to metal since Tony Iommi lost his fingers, then stop reading right here.

Riddick and the coterie of guests he's rounded up for this album did not create another metalcore, Suicide Silence, Blood Runs Black, Meshuggah album full of dysfunctional heavy at the expense of the music.

Grotesque Creation is the death metal record that Iron Maiden would make if Chuck Schuldiner would have been their singer.

It's wonderfully musical and diabolically brutal.  Fans of Internal Bleeding and Entombed ought to take note.

Guitars that have more gain than the last lap of the Indy 500...they're not here.

Blast beats at 700BPM played on triggers...they're also not here.

This album is melodic (all the time, not just during solos) death metal with a very strong sense of harmony. The riffs and chords sound nearly rock'n'roll here and there. There are little bass melodies that fill up empty space when it arrives.

The drums are turned down in the mix. The requisite blast beats are t here, but do not expect to hear them like Deicide or Morbid Angel. They are a part of the sound, not the basis of the music.

Overdriven guitars, an active bass player, more guest vocals than you can shake a corpse at, and top notch death metal song writing that focuses more on the song than on the damn that's heavy dynamic.

Release: 2/24/15
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Metalhit/Morbid Visions
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