Human Barbecue "Decimated by Barbarity" (Review)

Human Barbecue Decimated by Barbarity

2024 Reality Fade Records (CD)

realityfade.com

4/10 CRUSHED FUCKING SKULLS

Hailing from Belgium, this is the band's fourth full length. It's a two man project with programmed drums. First, let's get the bad out of the way - the fucking bass drops. This has become a trend in brutal death metal, and an annoying one. I counted four of them in the first track. The shit needs banned from death metal, period. I'm sick of it. Otherwise, this is a heavy, if basic, brutal death metal band with good guttural vocals and lots of big slam riffs. The problem they have is that they're doing nothing to differentiate themselves from the pack. The slam scene is absolutely swamped, mostly with shitty bands, but some rise above. Human Barbecue doesn't rise above, they just simmer on the top. The riffs are mostly just run-of-the-mill slam riffs over a groove or over a blast. "Terror on the Waves" sees them vary their approach a bit, giving us different riffs and something more death metal oriented. More like this and they'd be interesting. "Stained in Decay" also has some varied riffs, and it was a welcome relief. For being four full lengths in, I'm just not impressed, however, and I wish they hadn't fallen into every brutal death metal and slam trope in existence today.

.357 Homicide "Immutable Hostility" (Review)

.357 Homicide "Immutable Hostility"

2024 Reality Fade Records (CD)

www.realityfade.com

Slamming brutal death metal is so hit or miss for me. When Devourment's first record came out, I was floored, but the clones that have come after, or near-clones, or just inspired-bys, are flooding the scene with substandard slam. That's not necessarily the case here, but I am going to take issue with a few things.

The album is heavy and brutal, with sick gutturals throughout, but also the fucking pig squeals. I hate pig squeals. Give me the toad croak or just super-low gutturals instead, please. Next, the relentless bass drops. Time to stop those, boys, everyone's doing it. Constant slam riffs are also no good. Where are the songs, guys? Even similar vocals patterns are used over similar riffs in different songs, time to get more creative on that front. I don't like the triggered kick drums, but I understand why it's done, especially in a live setting or while recording.

But what's the band doing right? Well, for one, they're not constantly doing pig squeal vocals. They do mix it up a bit, just not enough. The rough-at-the-edges production make the record stand out a bit. The bass sound is unique, and I like it. It's fuzzed-out, almost Mortician-like. The theme of the album seems focused on war, which is nice in this subgenre, which is almost always gore or just dumb stuff. War is a good topic.

Overall, this has all been done, and there's not enough variety to keep me interested - and I'm not that interested in variety (my favorite band is Nunslaughter, after all!). After 3 records, I am assuming there are no tweaks left to make for this band's sound, since they obviously found something they like to do, and I'm not going to tell them not to do it. They're perfectly capable at what they do. I just want more death metal in the slam, that's all.