Oxygen Destroyer aren’t the only death metal band taking cinematic themes and setting them to music. So is Fulci, who have also returned with their first original full length offering since 2021’s Exhumed Information. This time, they’re tackling their namesake’s infamous 1982 slasher, The New York Ripper, with an album that’s bound to win wards for the worst titled outing of the year, Duck Face Killings. I know I can’t be the only one envisioning Kim Kardashian running around the Big Apple as a knife-wielding slasher right now.
Back to the point at hand, Exhumed Information was my introduction to these Italian death dealers. I found myself immediately intrigued by what was less an album per se and more a hybrid of two different releases. The first half centered largely around early ’90s death metal in the vein of classic Cannibal Corpse, bludgeoning riffage and all. The second half was an exercise in spine-tingling horror synth, sounding straight out of a Fulci movie that never was. Such a unique approach left me wanting more, morbidly curious of what the band could accomplish on a follow up effort. After 3 painstaking years, our answer is finally here.
Much like its predecessor, the one band Duck Face Killings draws immediate comparison to is Cannibal Corpse. Sure, perhaps there are shades of early Suffocation as well, but the guitar tone, vocal delivery, and balance between blasting chaos and midtempo meatheadedness screams CC. Considering they are only the biggest death metal band in history, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Fulci are part of a wave of bands hellbent on doing their best take on the Tomb of the Mutilated sound. What often ends up happening, however, is that said wave tends to fuse these fine and good (albeit gory) tropes with pointless outbursts of modern hardcore, which is unfortunately exactly what happens here.
Said outbursts are so dominant that even highlights like “Vile Butchery” and “Morbid Lust” are quickly overshadowed by the braindead, monotonous, chugging, karate-ready breakdowns of “Maniac Unleashed”, “Human Scalp Collection”, and “Rotten Apple”, and so forth. Ironically, I mentioned this pseudo-deathcore influence in my review of Exhumed Information, particularly when discussing the track “Funeral”. Little did I know they’d follow this path full steam ahead. In the same breath, I shouldn’t be too surprised, however, as this whole death metal-hardcore fusion is still the ongoing flavor of the day. So now Fulci sounds like 200 Stab Wounds who sounds like Creeping Death who sounds like…you get the idea.
Throw in the flat out vomit-inducing rap metal foolishness (I wish I was kidding) of “Knife” and Duck Face Killings becomes an even bigger disappointment for this here death metal purist. Yet when all’s said and done, I can’t blame Fulci. Like I said in the last paragraph, this is a matter of “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” So I don’t like it; who cares? As long as trailer park Kyle and his friends who were listening to Sleep Token last week, discovered Cannibal Corpse yesterday, and think they’re the genre’s authorities today dig it, that’s all that matters.
5 out of 10
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, 200 Stab Wounds