REVIEW: DESECRATION - MIXTAPE

Listening to Desecration’s mixtape, a free sample of cuts from their 20 year discography, is like watching a predator adapt to its surroundings in reverse. It sort of reminds me of the animals in the upcoming film After Earth, where the planet and all its creatures have become more and more efficient as killing humans. Except with Desecration you don’t get some shitty Shyamalan twist, you get exactly what you came to the party for: Lethal doses of sinister Welsh death metal, sharpened like a backwoods chainsaw.

Beginning with two songs each from Forensix and Process of Decay, Desecration show their most polished work first, with hooks that dig into your softest brain flesh and haunt you all day. “Sadosexual Suicide” grinds and batters the listener with blastbeats while remaining one of the catchiest death metal songs I’ve ever heard. There is a ton of groove in the chorus riffs off those albums, contributing an anthemic quality seen in the most addictive songs from Exhumed and Pungent Stench. “Raping the Corpse” celebrates the perversions of Ed Gein with pummelling Tomb of the Mutilated fury, reminding me that once upon a time Roberts Blossom, who played Old Man Marley in Home Alone, played a barely-fictional version of Gein in the film Deranged. “To Kill With A Drill” stomps defiantly, offering the finest batch of memorable riffs in the collection as vocalist/guitarist Ollie Jones unleashes razor-wire sharp licks. Part of the joy of listening to Desecration is the celebration of violent grindhouse-style films, like the winks at Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer, which make a horror geek like me geek out even more.

“Dig Up, Dig In” commences with the eerie snarl of flies blanketing some swollen, disgusting cadaver before launching into grinding death. “Murder in Mind” and “Turning Black” cover similar territory, exploring the grind-groove-grind formula they’ve exploited with great success throguh their entire blood-drenched career. “Crave For Rot” ends with the most primitive production quality, but the song beneath the murk is stellar, with the lead guitar squealing over foreboding doom before speeding to a downright evil breakdown closing out the mix. There’s legitimately something for every death metal fan here. If you can’t boogie to “Bacterial Breakdown” then I’m going to need you to cut that Carcass back patch off your vest right now, chief. Desecration definitely lean towards old-school death metal, limiting technical flourishes while focusing on concise songwriting, controversial content, and songs that will inspire pit-rage and dislodged vertebrae. It’s a helluva lot of fun, as long as you’re not the corpse they’re defiling in each song. Actually, how the hell do I know, it might be fun for the corpse too.

This mix is available on Bandcamp as a “name your price” download. If you like what you hear support the band, you know how it works. Also, look for Desecration to be featured in my upcoming article for Decibel Magazine, I’ll post more details when the release date for the issue has been confirmed. Many thanks to Ollie for taking the time to answer some of my desperate “FIVE DAYS TO MY DEADLINE OMG” questions.

Listen to Desecration over here on Bandcamp: http://desecration.bandcamp.com/album/free-desecration-mixtape

And check out their website for gig dates and merch:  http://www.desecration.co.uk/