Internal Bleeding- Settle All Scores Review

By Alekhines Gun

Few bands influence outshine their immediate popularity as much as Internal Bleeding. The founding fathers of slam, the lynch pins of New Yawk style thuggin and brawling, have been a pivotal DNA strain of death metal since debut Voracious Contempt spat in the face of human decency back in 1995. But the years have been as gritty to the band as their music, with infamous production issues, perpetual lineup shuffles, and tragic deaths littering their storied careers. The band have remained unbroken, and now seven years later have returned with a semi-reconstructed lineup, a new label, and a new album in tow. Has the passage of time dulled their edge, or will the Long Island boys successfully reduce your organs to leakage?

First things first, this is the best Internal Bleeding have ever sounded. The move to Maggot Stomp seems to have been an inspired choice, shedding the somewhat polished Unique Leader production in favor of a sound which, while not quite as slime-covered as the more prestigious of the maggot roster, is much more visceral and immediate in its filth. Settle All Scores sounds meaty and full, clearly articulating the entire band while they lob brass knuckle-clad grooves and bops at you from top to bottom. The guitar tone combines razor-edge immediacy with a thick enough backbone to provide the barbed wire to requisite drops (“Crown of Insignificance”, “Enforced Compliance”) with Ryan Giordano’s bass thunking away and given the occasional spotlights reminiscent of The Extinction of Benevolence. While the bands live power has never been in doubt, it’s refreshing to finally hear a record which translates into something equally thuggish and barbaric.

Compositionally, Settle All Scores slots nicely between the vaguely melodic progressivisms of Corrupting Influence with the brute-force straightforwardness of Driven to Conquer. While obviously taking the time to slam, the album feels more like it flirts with brutal death proper. Kickoff track “Intangible Pact” tinkers with intense tempos while band founder Chris Pervelis and second guitarist/backup vocalist/insatiable hypeman Chris McCarthy present some of the most convoluted triplet-laced scales in the bands discography. Internal Bleeding play heavily with tempo and octave shifting, with songs like “Settle All Scores” offering a funky slam which sounds ready to brawl with a smile before dropping it several intervals and giving the same intonation an extra dose of menace. The 80s-sounding solos from Corrupting Influence make a triumphant return, though not with the frequency that I might have wished. They add a unique flavor to a hodgepodge of constantly crushing riffs, with the next beat-down tempo change and word vomit from new vocalist1 Steve Worley never far behind. Consequently, this is an album that seeks to violate and brutalize at every turn, but does so with class and flair of elder statesmen without devolving into the overblown caveman tropes much of slam has deteriorated into.

The final result leaves Internal Bleeding sounding more energetic and vibrant than they have in decades. Settle All Scores oozes exuberance and enthusiasm, sounding very much like a living and breathing album more than a mere collection of tracks. The sheer kinesis from the performances on display carry “live album” vibes, with each cut diving in with a charisma that can only be honed from decades of touring and live shows to crowds great and small.2 Bolstered by a litany of guest vocalist appearances from Skinless, PeelingFlesh, Never Ending Game, and three former vocalists of their own, the band stand at the peak of their game technically, compositionally, and performatively. Settle All Scores doesn’t swing for the progressive tendencies of Imperium, which might disappoint some fans. But the push to increase the sheer brutality on display means such disappointment shouldn’t ruin the experience, as this release comes with its own flavor and stands high in the overall discography of the slam peddlers.

Settle All Scores is a triumphant return, and one that I hope spells a brighter future for Internal Bleeding. An excellent production, well-honed compositional touches, and manic delivery have allowed the bourbon-swilling, cigar-chomping vets to remind everybody who they are and why they matter. If you’re new to the band, this is as excellent a jumping-off point as any in their discography, and if you’ve been pining for their breed of bar-fight anthems, there’s no reason why you’ll be disappointed. Now go get your own scoresheet, your favorite barb-wire bat, and let the tallying unfold…

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Maggot Stomp Records
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: October 17th, 2025

#2025 #35 #AmericanMetal #DeathMetal #InternalBleeding #MaggotStomp #NeverEndingGame #Oct25 #PeelingFlesh #Review #Reviews #SettleAllScores #Skinless #Slam

Last Retch – Abject Cruelty Review

By Alekhines Gun

Despite the core ingredient being completely the same, not all steaks are created equal. Marbleization, marination, seasonings, sauces, garnishes, lobster tail, and the right type of whiskey to chase it down are all equally important considerations in preparation for the final product, despite the cynics’ argument that you’re dealing with the same slab of beef. So too with death metal. Hailing from Canada, Last Retch are our chophouse today, offering up their second LP Abject Cruelty to appease your palate for all things medium rare, and if you’re one of those cynics who think death metal all tastes the same because of its ingredient base, you can get back to whatever soup-slinging hellhole you came from. Abject Cruelty is here to eradicate and destroy with extreme prejudice, and make sure you lick the plate completely clean by the time you’re finished.

As all good steaks should, Abject Cruelty sounds fatty and thick. Drummer Spencer Robson has his double bass rolls placed flawlessly in the mix, adding car-window rattling depth of sound to machine gun riffs (“Resinous Drip of Decay”,) while guitarists John Russell and Derek Brzozowski ride a fat tone which straddles the line between HM-2 and the more filthy production of Gutless. Vocalist Finlay Blakelock has a vicious croak reminiscent of a more revitalized John McEntee (Incantation) in its depth. These well-worn ingredients come together in a total package of high-grade death, where the riff is king and the sauce is boss tone stands supreme, resulting in an engaging listen which flows from high bpm assaults to brief respites of mid-paced atmospherics. The release sounds surprisingly organic given its low DR, and its truncated runtime allows it to entertain before ear fatigue sets in.

As for the meal on offer, what awaits is a generous offering of Bolt Thrower with garnishes via a smorgasbord of dalliances with other stylings. “Beasley Meth Merchants” rocks pit-igniting rapid chugs and simple but effective drum rhythms in the spirit of classic Vader, while “Resinous Drip of Decay” flirts with Incantation atmosphere. Nods to bands as divergent as Carcass and Demilich (“Disolved in Lye”) transition into moments that recall the chuggiest thuggiest moments of Skinless (appropriate given the heavy amount of samples) while working solos which are used more as moody set-pieces than opportunities for fretboard heroics. Last Retch have concocted an album that calls to the leaders of old and does their best to fill the footsteps of such giants.

Naturally, such a tall order has its stumbling blocks, though there’s hardly anything sabotaging the album as a whole. The samples do a good job breaking up the carnage, but some have obnoxious vocal filters, which makes them grate more than enhance the music, with “Dissecting the Leper” being the worst offender.1 The strength of Abject Cruelty is more in its composition than the technicality of its performances. Title track “Abject Cruelty” sports one of my favorite riffs I’ve heard in years as a centerpiece for the song, but the half-time verses can’t quite keep up the menace in the delivery. This isn’t to imply the band are poor in their instruments by any means, but they clearly have a vision for grand and epic death which is grazed more often than it’s grasped. They have the mood and the individual riffs down to a science, but a push to challenge themselves a bit in the technicality will give the full product the shot in the arm it needs to be in contention for the modern-day death giants of the world.

Nevertheless, the majority of Abject Cruelty is a good take on what I want out of the slightly crustier side of modern death metal. It’s succinct, every song has at least one riff worthy of living room moshing, the production is fat, and the tone violent. Last Retch is a good band, and this album is a good album with some moments of genuine greatness. During my listens, I found myself many times thinking “this would probably sound fantastic in a live setting,” and for music as cathartic and energetic as this, that is an important impression. If you’re on the quest to eradicate the kindness in your life and have a good time doing it, there’s plenty of cruelty to go around waiting for you here…

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Time to Kill Records
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: September 26th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AbjectCruelty #BoltThrower #CanadianMetal #Carcass #DeathMetal #Demilich #Gutless #Incantation #LastRetch #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #Skinless #TimeToKillRecords #Vader

There is more for @EisenTukan's #NomNomNomNom in #TuneTuesday:

#Skinless: Crispy Kids

https://song.link/i/590998805

Putridity – Morbid Ataraxia Review

By Alekhines Gun

Formed in the early 2000s, Putridity are an Italian brutal death band. With roots as a solo project by a former member of Obscene Perversion, the outfit grew from a one-man-basement dream into a fully fledged lineup of slowly increasing reputation from infrequent release to release. A decade has passed since the previous full-length Ignominious Atonement, though the recently released Greedy Gory Gluttony EP finds the band with a refreshed but stable lineup and an enhanced taste for lethality. With last year being a stunning time for brutal death of all shapes and sizes, and this year already facing challenges from young bands and veterans alike, do these brutal statesmen have an argument for a place at the top of the beatings heap?

Morbid Ataraxia puts a lot of stock in its hefty production. A spacious tonal palate allows the nonstop battering-ram drumming of Cédric Malebolgia to erupt from underneath the riffs, with heavy emphasis put on snare violation and rapid-fire cymbal interplay. Vocalist Andrea Piro features a fierce guttural that channels the spirit of vintage Analepsy, human and caustic without deteriorating into pure trash compactor indecipherability. The tones of founder Putrid Ciccio and Manuel Lucchini unfortunately drown out bassist Giancarlo Mendo but make up for it in raw punch, straddling a perfect line between just enough treble for progressions to be heard and enough bottom end to sound like driving cement mixers. For an album that hinges on breakneck speed and more blasts than a military training ground, this breadth of clarity allows each savage moment to be present and accounted for with extreme prejudice to the listener.

At its best, Morbid Ataraxia is a precise and clinical display of the “never-ending cyclone of riffs” class of brutal death. Title track “Morbid Ataraxia” features a devastatingly foul plod of a chug while drums erupt with boiling rage underneath. “Overflowing Mortal Smell” manages to make a shuddering groove out of rarely placed halftime (for the tempo) riffage. Add more pinch harmonic-based phrasing than I can count, and time signature changes from measure to measure, and you have a recipe for a dose of relentless assault from cover to cover. The entire album is connected via samples, which range from ambient vocal gurgling and a (possibly unintentional) throwback to a vintage Skinless cut to the far more unsettling. The unexpectedly ambient ebb and flow of the album, with the samples bisecting various tracks and the constant gargling throughout the empty spaces lends Morbid Ataraxia a proper LP vibe, meant to be consumed in one sitting from beginning to end.

However, the worst thing about Morbid Ataraxia is that it’s a precise and clinical display of the “never-ending cyclone of riffs” class of brutal death. An excessive overreliance on pinch harmonics and monochrome snare abuse give the first half of the album a monotonous feeling, where each track feels like it could be substituted into another slot without impacting much of the album’s flow. Putridity traffic heavily in a vintage Deeds of Flesh approach to riff-craft, with moment to moment flowing into itself with little thought of hooks or repetition or accessibility. That’s fine, to a point; certainly big anthemic choruses aren’t what we are here for. But depending entirely on an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach to song craft means you need your individual riffs to actually pack a punch beyond their tone, and here is where the album falls flat. Two songs in, you will have heard every bag of tricks Putridity has to offer; not just the harmonics but limited drum styling, minimal lead flourishes, and speedy grinding chord progressions, all of which are quite lethal in their immediacy but ineffective in retaining attention ’til the back half of the album.

Putridity is a good band, and Morbid Ataraxia is a fine album, but the few highs it has presented have left me wanting more. The production is a delight, and individual performances are certainly top-notch. However, the band fails in overcoming brutal death’s greatest hurdle, which is to be perpetually interesting and not just obscenely heavy. The approach of stitching all the tracks together implies a concept of some sort, and I’d like to see them continue this approach in the future, but with widened wings in the composition department. For now, if you’re still chasing the brutality dragon, Putridity have you covered; just consider the artwork and don’t ask what you’re covered in.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip Records
Websites: Album Bandcamp | Official Instagram
Releases Worldwide: June 27th, 2025

#25 #Analepsy #BrutalDeathMetal #DeedsOfFlesh #ItalianMetal #Jun25 #MorbidAtaraxia #ObscenePerversion #Putridity #Review #Reviews #Skinless #WillowtipRecords

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