Mortician

Bass behemoth Will Rahmer and gut-string grinder Roger Beaujard crawl forth from their sonic torture chamber deep in the bowels of the New York death-metal underground to issue their latest manglecore mantra. Certainly not one to succumb to the trends of watered-down aggression, Mortician have remained consistent in their unique variety of programmed rapid-fire drums, lowest-of-low vocal growls, and bass tones so bottomless that they seem run through amps with long-blown speaker cones. "Necronomicon Exmortis," "Brood Of Evil" and "The Hatchet Murders" begin with the band's signature samples from obscure horror flicks then plow into the Obituary-cum-Winter sludge with mechanised drums. "Telepathic Terror" is a perfect example: not only is it prefaced with a solid sample from the first mind-blowing scene in the film Scanners, but it also features a looped shriek from that movie just before the song's finale. Beaujard also tries out some new riffs ("Martin (The Vampire)," "Dr. Gore"), though they're only slight adaptations from his tried-and-true old-school chord-age that hardgore fans crave. Said freaks will also revel in Mortician's choice of cover tunes and the relatively tame cover art by Wes Benscoter. Although not as catchy and diverse as 1996's Hacked Up For Barbecue and 1998's Zombie Apocalypse, Domain Of Death undoubtedly lives up to its name for unrelenting brutality.