“Death metal in its purest form” is a phrase Revulsed use to describe their music and the live version of their album Infernal Atrocity does its best to live up to that showcasing the band in a live setting.
Australia has been known to produce some extreme metal and perhaps the best known would be Mortification, especially the Scrolls of the Megilloth album, which featured Revulsed’s Jayson Sherlock. Since that time Sherlock has gone on to Paramecium and started the band in 2010. In 2015, the band released their debut, Infernal Atrocity, which was met with good reviews and the music compared to the likes of Suffocation, Disgorgement, and early Mortification. After recording of Infernal Atrocity, bass player Mark Smith joined the band and Damien Mirklis joined on vocals as vocalist Konni Lühring who was featured on the album is simply not local to Australia and would be unable to play shows with the band. The band did leave open the possibility of Lühring to provide vocals should the band tour Europe however, so the changes were simply geographical in nature. The last member of the band, Sheldon D’Costa who was there since the beginning, has In Exordium and Incarnate in his bio. For Live Atrocity the band recorded the performance of Infernal Atrocity as their first ever live show and has it available on bandcamp and also as a CD/DVD package.
So, while new to me, I knew exactly where this album was headed. Unreadable band logo, songs with very dark themes and titles with words associated with decay and destruction all point to some variant of death metal, likely more extreme than most and that is exactly what is delivered. Amazing to consider this is the band’s first ever live performance and also features a different vocalist than what they recorded the album with. For singing purists, I use the term “vocalist” loosely, while those into technical death metal and extreme metal will know exactly what I mean. Dark, guttural, largely unintelligible growls characterize what can be heard, but if one follows along with the supplied dark lyrics, one can get a grasp of what the songs are about.
Jayson Sherlock certainly provides a focal point in the drumming on the album, be it insanely fast fills and double bass, the drums come through loud and clear in the mix. Being a live album, there are some sacrifices to sound quality, but in general, the sound is good on the album although it does come across as a bit thin compared to the studio version. The studio version is crushingly brutal in its heaviness and impact and that simply isn’t quite there in the live version. Performances are solid and the band is necessarily tight. Bass guitar does get some solo time in a couple of the songs, but again in the mix it does seem to be a bit underrepresented. Guitar solos are well done and the technical nature of the riffs that is expected in the genre comes through loud and clear.
Honestly, for me, I do find it hard to follow the individual songs with albums in this genre simply because I lack the practice. That being said, there is a good bit of creativity in the songwriting here as all the songs do not sound the same, nor are they all built around simply showcasing blast beats and bass drum lines although those elements are certainly present. While hard to pick a favorite track, “Transmutational Craniotomy” is likely my favorite on the album. Guttural growled opening gives way to pounding drum line and a great fast riff and the song lurches and roars for nearly four minutes of chaos punctuated by a short guitar solo and ending with growl. Revulsed has added another fan in this reviewer and if you’re looking for some extreme metal, you owe it to yourself to check this out.
Rating: 8/10
Written by John Jackson
Tracklist:
01. Rapacious Engorgement Live 03:59
02. Agonising Putrid Self-Infliction Live 03:59
03. Pestilential Articulation Live 03:41
04. Imposed Cognitive Reconstruction Live 04:05
05. Transmutational Craniotomy Live 03:54
06. Archetypal Cauterization Live 04:13
07. Enticement to Carnivorous Impoverishment Live 04:00
08. Celestial Perspicacity Live 02:42
09. Infernal Atrocity Live 02:01
10. Hammer Smashed Face (free) 04:04
Band Members
Damien Miriklis – Vocals
Sheldon D’Costa – Guitars
Mark Smith – Bass
Jayson Sherlock – drums
Albums
“Infernal Atrocity”
“Live Atrocity – The Inception Of Sufferance” (2017)
Record Label: Independent, April 2017
Buy the album here:
Holland: First Paradox
Norway: Nordic Mission
Video for ‘Rapacious Engorgement’
Video for ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ (Cannibal Corpse cover)