Despite appearing to be from the Carcass school of grind, this band contains more death metal and modern metal than 1980s grind, although it mixes in a fair amount of bounding, aggressive grindcore from the Repulsion, Terrorizer, and Napalm Death early 1990s model. Nonetheless this band possesses its own style.

Among other things, it implements some of the newer emo-style droning riff patterns and uses contrast more directly than older grind bands, giving it a bit more space and atmosphere, enabling the louder parts to contrast the rest and bring out the sonic dimensions of their riffs. Like a death metal band, it stacks riffs together into a vocabulary and embarks on a journey with the change in those grammars over the course of each song.

Like a robin, Putrid Offal makes its nest out of three generations of riff styles, mixing in a few hard rock, punk, and death metal riffs with the grind, borrowing song patterns from older rock or ambient here and there, and working more from the Nausea/Agathocles school of hardcore punk energy with minor-key mostly chromatic riffs that end on cadence rather than syncopation.

Perhaps nothing rises to epic status here, but Putrid Offal re-invigorate the language of grindcore without losing it, and give it a voice by separating it from the novelty of all-out blasting noise. Picking up where Napalm Death left off with Utopia Banished, this new voice gives grindcore more room to grow.

Purists will not be disappointed because unrelenting blasting has its place here, often picking up from melodic riffs and taking the song into a more conclusive direction, and serves as the pillars which anchor the other riffing. Like a formless chaos, it gives birth to the rest of this interesting and surprisingly listenable album.

Tracklist

1. Autopsy
2. Let There Be Rot
3. Dura Mater
4. Necrotic Mutilation
5. Charnel House
6. A Rot’s Caress
7. Glorify Me
8. Livor Mortis
9. Lifeblood Ejected
10. Viscera
11. Palor Mortis
12. Skilled Ritual
13. Barber Butcher
14. Y Shaped
15. Vesalius [CD] / Veins [LP]
16. Heaven’s Door
17. Vasectomy

Tags: Grindcore, putrid offal