How unpleasant do you want to get? Remember when bands such as Autopsy and Gorerotted were hellbent on messing with your perceptions of normality whilst single-handedly battering in your skull with an iron mallet? Meet Sweden’s Repuked, a band who are every bit as unpleasant as their name might suggest and responsible for producing this brain-destroyingly violent racket via Soulseller records and if its unpleasantness syou wanted then read on.
Opening with the five-minute exercise in brutality that is ‘chemically wasted’ Repuked are a hard as nails combo who have clearly nailed, on the two demos they did previous to this debut release, the sound that they want. While you could hardly call it refined (and the band would undoubtedly be insulted if you did) what is clear is that the musicians involved have worked hard to create this, slightly swampy, see of noise and aural abuse and it works very well indeed, ripping flesh and bone in the process. With an awesome first track out of the way the band then launch a full on, Slayer-thrashing assault in the form of ‘Gag!’, a two minute blast of pungent unpleasantness that sounds like the result of a knife-fight at a drink-till-you-puke party with blood and fluids covering every available surface. The solos are messy and hyper-fast, the riffs as brutal as they come and the drums played at a speed that might induce an embolism in the weaker minded. Yeah – It’s awesome and heavy and furiously evil and therefore you should love it.
Then there’s ‘mental vomit’ which is metal played fast and loose with a punk rock aggression and cavalier disregard for commercial concerns. With the band slowing things down for some really nice mid-tempo grind what really stands out are the vocals which are truly demonic and while in the latter half of the track are classic-rock solo makes the hairs on the neck stand up it is the overall feeling of degradation and perversity that draws you ever deeper into repuked’s sordid world. Having never heard the band before, I can honestly say I hadn’t expected them to be as good as this and anyone with a taste for prime death metal will go a bundle on this sweet collection of disturbing tunes and filth-filled lyrics. Conjuring up an almighty groove on the title track, the band once again veer into Slayer territory with a none-more-brutal riff overlaid with the vocals of the damned and some seriously sweet drum work. Opting for a mid-temp chug, the band find a deeper, darker power in their music and accentuate the faster passages accordingly showcasing a fierce intelligence and solid song-writing skills which are all the more impressive bearing in mind this is the band’s first full-length outing.
Following on from the seriously brilliant ‘pervertopia’ is the brilliantly purile ‘I wanna puke on you’ which successfully sounds like a combination of Not the 9 ‘O’ Clock news’ ‘Gob on you’ punk parody and Autopsy – neither of which is a bad thing. Passing through a variety of tempos on its way to the floor, the track is a non-stop splatter fest of corrosive grinding riffs and anguish and it then gives way to the brutal ‘Brainboiler’ which opens with a sample proclaiming “I’m just another chunk of meat” before slamming you hard with a melee of furious riffs and throat-ripping vocals. Moving into Cannibal Corpse territory ‘standing by the roadside… is fifty seconds of imagination-rotting noise before ‘…fucking something dead’ turns out to be a more simple form of death metal unpleasantness complete with the most enraged vocals this side of a behemoth album. Guaranteed to make fans of less extreme music require a change of underwear, the hyper-speed drums and razor sharp guitars are vicious in the extreme and hugely enjoyable, particularly when they slow down long enough for the riff to really hammer you between the eyes with the simple, brute force tactic of a zombie on a killing spree. ‘Morgue of whores’ hams up the atmosphere of horror with a riff that wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Cradle of Filth album albeit with infinitely better vocals and a mid-section that is guaranteed to bang every head that comes near it, before ‘Orgasmic death deliverer’ proves to be every bit as awesome as its title complete with a gloriously heavy introduction and a central guitar riff that sounds like a chainsaw cutting through flesh. Last track ‘Toxic constipation’ rounds the album out in a flurry of screams and moans (such as you may safely imagine toxic constipation might cause) while the music sees that classic rock connection raise its head once more as the band do an exceptionally heavy, largely instrumental, take on Black Sabbath. It’s heavy, doom-laden and utterly irresistible highlighting how damn good the band are at incorporating their influences and churning out something exciting and unpleasantly new – especially as it fades out into the haunting music to John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ just to really make things creepy.
Repuked are damned nasty. Like Cannibal Corpse, Autopsy and other such unpleasant denizens of the dark they’re not interested in anything beyond banging your head and emptying your guts and they succeed on both levels. The music is awesome, heavy and brutal and yet aware of metal’s lengthy history and importance and as such is both respectful and forward looking – a great combination for a band who despite being on their first release are full of confidence and vigour. If you like distressingly ugly, brutally exciting music then this excellent release is for you. As for me, I’m going to sit down and listen to it again – this is a damned good release.
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