200 Stab Wounds is the latest death metal band that everybody and their mom can’t stop talking about. I swear, it was like one day I woke up and everybody had forgotten about Sanguisugabogg. Now the focus of the mullet headed, Pit Viper eyed, vintage Bolt Thrower long sleeve clad crowd had fully shifted towards these guys, who up until this week, I had never listened to. I approach these types of releases with caution. On one hand, I don’t want my cynicism towards said hype to mire what could possibly be an enjoyable listen. On the other hand, I feel I’d be doing you, the reader, a disservice by ignoring such a high profile release. So here’s my (mostly) unbiased take on everyone’s new “album of the year”, Slave to the Scalpel.
Upon doing some research, it turns out I have heard 200 Stab Wounds prior to this album, just under a different name and style. Three fourths of the band makes up Slayer worshippers Subtype Zero, who I’m almost positive I saw at either the Fallout or Cobra Lounge sometime in the 2010s (as we approach 2022, that decade is becoming more and more of a blur). Now I will be the first to tell you that I don’t listen to Subtype Zero for their “groundbreaking” contributions to the grand pantheon of heavy metal: I listen to them to hear Reign in Blood era Slayer rehashed, reworked, and regurgitated. Considering the sorry creative state of Slayer’s last 30 years, I don’t find anything wrong with this.
It should then come as no surprise that the guys utilize the same approach as 200 Stab Wounds, only this time their object of admiration is Cannibal Corpse. Sure there’s a Dying Fetus breakdown and a Carcass melody here and there. There’s even certain songs whose structures bear resemblance to classic crossover or NYHC (i.e. “Tow Rope Around the Throat”, “Drilling Your Head”, etc.), but at the end of the day, 200 Stab Wounds genuflects at the altar of hard hitting, ignorant death metal in the vein of Tomb of the Mutilated. Their formula is on full display on the album’s opening cut, “Skin Milk”: guttural vocals, guttural guitars (if that makes any sense), and sick, slamming grooves galore.
The death metal elitist in me really didn’t want to enjoy these first few songs which screamed “hardcore kids gone death metal”, but when you lay down grooves as intense as these guys, it’s impossible not to bang your ahead in approval. However, this approval let up somewhere in between the bludgeoning “Itty Bitty Pieces” and frantic “Phallic Filth”. Like so many death metal releases today, each song started to bleed into the next, playing what sounds like the same riff at different speeds. The sole exception to this observation is my choice cut, “Paths to Carnage”, which captures the audio bloodthirst of Necroticism era Carcass and early At the Gates.
Slave to the Scalpel isn’t a bad album, but I can think of other death metal releases from this year more deserving of your attention. For one, if you wanna hear Cannibal Corpse, there is indeed their new album, Violence Unimagined, which happens to be their strongest outing in ages. Meanwhile, this album has its strong moments, but continuously falls into a trap of repetition and laziness. Hopefully their next outing will be…sharper.
5 out of 10
Label: Maggot Stomp
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Sanguisugabogg