Gutteral Secrete
Artistic Creation With Cranial Stumps

February 2005
Released: 2004, Unmatched Brutality Records
Rating: 1.0/5
Reviewer: Gabriel C. Zolman

Musically, the band is certainly competent enough—the rapid-fire drumming is both worthy and well-recorded, a longstanding thorn to many an underground aspirant. The impressive shrieks and howls of vocalist Blue are truly unsettling, until they devolve into the standard pig-belches so common to the less imaginative in the genre.



The record—an EP—certainly begins strongly enough; in fact, the opener may be the strongest brutal death metal cut I’ve heard in ages…but by the midway point, the group seems to lose its identity, sounding like any number of “brutal” acts. This is not to say the release is unredeemable, so much as to say that it is unremarkable—as indeed, the EP ultimately peaks with the aforementioned opening track, “Slit Into Succulunce” (sic).



Although it might not be very “metal” to pick on this, its prominence has forced this reviewer’s hand: the bad grammar, poor spelling, and improper word usage of this release is just plain ridiculous. It’s not that I have no tolerance for gore lyrics—quite the contrary. I understand this genre as well as anyone. But as a writer, I am offended by poor English. It’s as simple as that. Less shocking than silly, this is death metal for the knuckle-dragging unschooled.



For sheer brutality and dementia value, the CD would certainly appear to deliver the goods, but with music this proficient, it is a crying shame the lyrics are so juvenile.