Jungle Rot

Among my life goals is meeting someone who's a diehard Jungle Rot fan, has a tattoo or even owns a shirt. I just don't seem to come across these people, but they must exist. The Wisconsin death metal band have always languished in the middle of the second tier, for no good reason except never really having that extra something needed to make them stick out during the '90s death metal onslaught. Victory has signed them and reissued their 1995 demo, Skin the Living, and it still sounds solid, combining Obituary's groove with a great deal of mid-tempo, chug-a-lug, knucklehead, death metal crunch, all of which proves the point that these guys play bottom-heavy death, with a touch of thrash, 100 percent competently but with zero personality. It's hard to warm up to, but it's worth the challenge. When you sit back and think that this was a demo from'95, damn, it gets you thinking that maybe these guys deserve just a bit more.