NecroticGoreBeast is still going strong.
Since 2017 in Canada, John Mayer (vocals, The Outborn), Alexandre Brochu (bass, The Outborn), JP Bouchard (drums, Morningless, ex-Bookakee, ex-Necronomicon) and Michael Chamberland (guitar, Soiled by Blood) swear by violence. In 2023, they announced the release of Repugnant, their third album, on Comatose Music.
Repugnant, the eponymous track, opens with an eerie sample. The voice sounds frightened, and is quickly overpowered by the band’s first massive riffs, which follow the Slam/Brutal Death approach of moshparts interspersed with dissonant parts, as does Unsedated Face Removal with its jerky rhythm. The massive sound calls for a break at any moment as the vocalist roars before sharing his place with Matt McGachy (Cryptopsy) on Consensual Castration, obviously making the track even more brutal thanks to the alternating screams before continuing on Self-Inflicted Cerebral Edema and its Old School accents thanks to the screaming harmonics the band regularly uses. The band’s rage subsides ever so slightly on the opening Gouged Eye Copulation, but then flares up again to return to the sound we’re all familiar with, as it does on Masturbated to Death, where the four musicians welcome Jonathan Huber (Bludgeoned, ex-Pathology, ex-I, Detest, ex-I Declare War) to reinforce the vocal strength, which becomes truly devastating. The track sinks slowly into the darkness before emerging on Nail Clipper Circumcision, a composition whose introduction would seem almost melodic next to the crushing rhythm that follows, and which regularly molests us until Ruptured Priapism takes over with riffs just as aggressive as the previous ones, whether at full speed or at a more moderate pace. The band gives us a moment to breathe with Phlebotomized, which starts off slowly enough before picking up the pace with a particularly effective blast, then it’s with Frozen Feces Evisceration, the shortest track on the album, that the band adds a few spikes of technicality to bring the album to a close.
Violence is the one and only means of expression for NecroticGoreBeast, as they’ve made clear in the past, and they continue to do so on Repugnant. Nothing revolutionary in their approach, just raw efficiency.
85/100