Prostitute Disfigurement
Embalmed Madness

November 2005
Released: 2005, Unmatched Brutality
Rating: 2.0/5
Reviewer: Madman

Prostitute Disfigurement – Embalmed Madness



Straight from the Netherlands to your doorstep comes Prostitute Disfigurement’s 2001 debut, EMBALMED MADNESS. This album sees a re-release for its North American audience by none other than Unmatched Brutality who saw fit to tack on the band’s 2000 DISFIGUREMENT demo. Needless to say, tossing in the Unmatched Brutality reference and you have a good idea of what you’re going to get here…



Prostitute Disfigurement plays that oh so typical, brutal death metal but unlike many of the band’s peers they aren’t as blast beat happy. On EMBALMED MADNESS the band switches up slightly thrashy moments with your all out speed blast sections. The album almost reminds me of Cannibal Corpse on GORE OBSESSED, but maybe just a little less involved. Vocalist, Niels, mostly sticks to a low indecipherable growl but throws in the odd high pitched vocal here and there. Normally I don’t mention an album’s production but with this one I must make an exception, the bass drums sound horrible. I mean, in most death metal bands they’re usually triggered and sound phoney anyway but the drum machine verges on annoying when there’s an extended sections that contain double bass. Especially during “Choking on Defecation” which is almost unbearable to sit through.



The almost starts off fast with “Slaughterhouse Sledgehammer”; now I have no clue what the hell the lyrics to the song are (none are included in the booklet), but considering the title and the style of music Prostitute Disfigurement play (not to mention the band name) you’ll have a good idea what Neils is singing about immediately by looking at the song titles. Clocking in at barely over 2 minutes (with a short sound byte intro to boot) “Slaugherhouse Sledgehammer” will see your eyes glaze over in boredom, at least until about a minute in when they ditch the tremolo riffs for something a bit heavier and thrashier, unfortunately things don’t stay that way. This leaves one itching for something to hold onto after the song is done. “Feasting on Remains” follows much the same pattern, not really hitting on anything till about a minute in before discarding its most interesting section just prior to ending the song. “Bloodless” sees Prostitute Disfigurement at their best, at least on this album The main reason being that there is heavy, chugging riffing throughout the whole song with the blast sections sounding exceptionally well done when paired up with the main riffing not to mention the thrash section at 1:12. The song also contains some rather exceptional switches between deep growls and higher screeches.



For the most part though, things don’t really seem to pick up after “Bloodless”. A lot of the boredom that was seen in the first two songs, along with a little of the nausea from “Choking on Defecation” shows up from tracks 5-12. For the most part it becomes a collection of boring songs that contain one or two decent sections only to be thrust in the middle of what is essentially a boring, go nowhere, song. When it comes to the demo tracks the, they’re basically worthless as it’s essentially five songs that appear on the album, but with a much muddier sound…



EMBALMED MADNESS is a rather stale death metal debut that doesn’t really see Prostitute Disfigurement stand out from the already crowded pack. At the same time, I wouldn’t say this album is any worse than most of what’s coming out of the brutal death metal scene. Take that as a compliment for Prostitute Disfigurement or as a criticism of the current death metal scene. Either way the band have already released album #3, hopefully there’s some signs of growth… Unfortunately I may never know as this debut hasn’t given me much reason to investigate the band further.