Why behave when you can be as violent as Putrid Offal?
In 2025, Franck Peiffer (guitar/vocals/drums, ex-M.Pheral), Fred Houriez (bass, ex-M.Pheral) Philippe Reinhalter (guitar, Division Alpha, Undead Prophecies) and Laye Louhenapessy (drums, Dehuman, Bonepipe, ex-Vibrion) signed to Time To Kill Records to bring us Obliterated Life, their third album.
The Sweet Fragrance is a fast-paced blend of Grindcore and Death Metal with jerky patterns and powerful screams in a relatively aggressive mix that leaves plenty of room for each instrument. Boning Hall is slightly more chaotic, but also allows the leads to give a more anguished tone to certain passages, before returning to a more aggressive approach on Life Consumed and its catchy playful riffs. Meat Stall picks up the pace with a furious rhythm that regularly flares up on command, then Entrails Emancipation follows for a relatively simple but oh-so-effective minute of pure fury before giving way to the intriguing harmonics of Privilege of Pain. The track is much longer than the others, allowing for a sometimes rather imposing atmosphere in the violence, but also a slowed-down and rather disquieting final vocal sample that slowly disappears, but the instruments return with Darkness Awaits, which gets off to a fairly gentle start. The rhythm explodes without surprise and strikes in waves before finally handing over to Sanguis In Oris, which melts on us and lacerates us with assumed cruelty and vivid patterns. We continue with Mass Murder and its rather motivating approach, where playful touches combine perfectly with violence, which returns in full force on the very short Agony Prevails, which tramples us for less than thirty seconds. Messy Flesh immediately takes up the slack, delivering a devastating, near-permanent blast as the vocalist rants and raves, but there’s a brief lull before the final, throwing us into Ribcage Blues, which takes less than a minute to show off all its violence. The Black Veil reveals just how well the track lives up to its name, thanks to a very dark, ominous sound and a few orchestrations and murmurs, then the album comes to an end with the long Theatrum Anatomicum, where the pace fluctuates between wild accelerations and simply solid moments, even allowing itself some eerie lead parts to close the album.
If Putrid Offal is so respected in the Death/Grind scene, it’s thanks to the macabre rage that inhabits every track. Obliterated Life knows how to deliver both short incisive tracks and long anguishing compositions that hit the mark.
85/100