True to its cover art, Echoes of Dismemberment, the debut LP from Delaware death metal outfit Scorched, plays like a roll call of grindhouse slasher flicks. In keeping with the best kind of cheesy horror films, the band make an art out of excess and back up their shamelessly grotesque imagery with a masterful command over technique and dynamics.
With song titles indebted to the shock and gore tactics of predecessors like Cannibal Corpse, Scorched bring intricate arrangements and lush production to these scenes of terror. Drummer Matt Izzi of Homewrecker applies his keen rhythmic ear to constantly shifting guitar riffage, sprinkling subtle syncopations and counter-intuitive meters into the carnage. "Rot in Confinement" patches together shrieking pinch harmonics, head-banging sludge grooves and hyperspeed guitar shredding over four action-packed minutes while a lone haunting church bell clangs over the creeping breakdown on "Dealings of a Gruesome Kind."
The band do an excellent job of building tension in between outbursts of chaos, working ominous piano notes into "Autopsy Incomplete" and using synth interludes "Flesh Awaits" and "Vile Lingering Stench" to break up the record. This creates a cinematic feeling of anticipation that sets up vocalist Matt Kapa for some dramatic performances as the merciless villain. He makes a chilling entrance over the chromatic guitar harmonies of "Torture Prolonged," howling an ode to sadism as the band build momentum.
By the end of the album, Scorched leave no survivors and little doubt as to their crucial position in the contemporary American death metal scene.
(Unspeakable Axe)With song titles indebted to the shock and gore tactics of predecessors like Cannibal Corpse, Scorched bring intricate arrangements and lush production to these scenes of terror. Drummer Matt Izzi of Homewrecker applies his keen rhythmic ear to constantly shifting guitar riffage, sprinkling subtle syncopations and counter-intuitive meters into the carnage. "Rot in Confinement" patches together shrieking pinch harmonics, head-banging sludge grooves and hyperspeed guitar shredding over four action-packed minutes while a lone haunting church bell clangs over the creeping breakdown on "Dealings of a Gruesome Kind."
The band do an excellent job of building tension in between outbursts of chaos, working ominous piano notes into "Autopsy Incomplete" and using synth interludes "Flesh Awaits" and "Vile Lingering Stench" to break up the record. This creates a cinematic feeling of anticipation that sets up vocalist Matt Kapa for some dramatic performances as the merciless villain. He makes a chilling entrance over the chromatic guitar harmonies of "Torture Prolonged," howling an ode to sadism as the band build momentum.
By the end of the album, Scorched leave no survivors and little doubt as to their crucial position in the contemporary American death metal scene.
