On the rare weekends I’m not out and about catching shows, I like to stay in the confines of my heavy metal mancave and listen to records. Oh yeah, and I like to drink too. When I get about 6 beers in, I usually shift gears to something a bit heavier, not just alcohol wise, but musically too. Sure Toto’s Hydra had me singing along for those first few beers, and Omen’s Battle Cry got my blood pumping for the next three, but now it’s time to crank up the intensity six hundred and sixty six fold. Maybe some Hellhammer will do the trick. Or how about Metal Blade era Slayer? Why not go back to the beginning with Venom’s Welcome to Hell? *swigs whiskey* Screw it, all of the above!
So what does Rotting in the Aftermath, the latest album from Canadian agents of chaos Begrime Exemious, have to do with any of this? Well it’s definitely one of those albums that I would be cranking LOUD on a drunken Saturday night/Sunday morning (Who keeps track of the time?), neighbors be damned. Not just settling for brainless nostalgia and old school revivalism, Begrime Exemious specializes in a primal brand of extreme metal that lies at the crossroads of black, death, and thrash, recalling the earliest demo days of the three with a genuine passion for brutality.
From the opening mosh driven death/thrash of “Cruel Mistress”, you could’ve convinced me this was some unearthed obscurity from 35 years prior, its lo-fi production and bestial instrumental setting the tone for a truly infernal outing. The black metal influences take hold on “Breach the Stronghold”, specifically in the eerie guitar passages, throat ripping vocals, and explosive blast drumming. And while subsequent songs on this release had me thinking, “Maybe that was the sole blackened moment on what’s otherwise an extremely raw thrash album.”, the wild Venom worship of “Galvanized (Like Nails)” and unsettling dissonant blackened doom of “Diseased Mankind” shut me up FAST.
When I wasn’t taken aback by the extremity on display, I was moshing it up at all speeds, as this is the type of album where you can do so. “As Bodies Collapse” and “Regressive Decisions” serve as a lethal one-two death/thrash punch, daring you to stand still with their pit friendly rage, the latter co-opting d-beats and crust riffs to really give you the middle finger. Contrasting this is the slow, miserable, and gut wrenchingly heavy death/doom of “Infected Mind”. This putrid hymn must’ve crawled from the same crypt as Hellhammer and Autopsy, reveling in a bleak aura of filth, evil, and despair.
Begrime Exemious make a lot out of a little and waste no time doing so on Rotting. While the bands that pioneered this sound have since resorted to releasing bloated and boring 60+ minute albums with more filler than killer, you can rely on Rotting to possess your very soul in a little over 35 minutes. And then, when you’re waking up at 2 in the afternoon the next day, be sure to blast it again, because I’m positive this album will murder your hangover.
8 out of 10
Label: Dark Descent Records
Genre: Black/Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Order from Chaos, Slayer, Morbid Angel