Regurgitate

Sweden’s finest gore-grinders are finally back to satisfy the legions with their latest platter of splatter. Well, legions is a stretch, but the small pocket of metalheads that appreciate this stuff know that Regurgitate are top-notch. The only real noticeable difference between Sickening Bliss and the band’s past output are a few more minutes of drawn-out doom, a nice counterpoint to the band’s patented short bursts of punked-up old school gore-grind. I love it when the riffs stay slow and doom-y but the blast beats continue on "Addiction.” And those gurgling vocals just get grosser — check out "Putrid Serenity,” where you can almost taste the vile bile. Like their past few releases, the band have eschewed gore-grind’s normal lo-fi production values for a crisp, Nasum-esque sound. The mixture of hi-fi technology producing such primitive grindcore works wonders. While these guys aren’t sophisticated enough to be the next Nasum, they’re not trying. Instead, they’re carrying on a very worthy legacy started by Repulsion and Carcass years ago. And sure, listening to an album that features cover art of a woman lovingly holding her own entrails as if it were a child makes me think I’m going to hell in a headbang, but with tunes this good, it’s worth it.