Label - Extremely Rotten Productions
Release Date - 8th July 2022
Words - Chris Fletcher
Hailing from the unassuming countryside of Maine, USA, one-man death/doom project Seep are back with their full-length debut record ‘Hymns To The Gore’, and it is fair to say that there could be no more fitting a title for these eight tracks of unfettered brutality. Expanding on the foundations of their previous demo by adding elements of goregrind and brutal death metal, Seep have managed to create a sub-thirty-minute slab of festering extreme metal that shows as much potential as it does savagery.
Opening track ‘Morbidly Obese’ begins with a warning - “This programme is extremely graphic and it is intended to be so” - setting the tone early doors before you are hit with a guitar and snare tone only a death metal fan could love. The death metal trademarks don’t stop there, blast beats and chugging riffs abound as we plough through the following tracks with furious intensity. ‘Jigsaw Facefuck’ does actually sound like there are power tools at work whilst also injecting some haunting ambient instrumentals for added effect.
Other standout tracks include the aptly named ‘Addicted To Rancidity’, which offers a slower, more ominous build followed by some excellent lead guitar work, and ‘Gorging On The Gutpile’ this one beginning with a spooky piano intro whilst we are regaled with a less than savoury tale of a serial killer who eats the organs of their victims. The inevitable bludgeoning continues by the time we reach the final three tracks which finish proceedings nicely.
Production-wise, Seep have nailed it with this one. Raw and heavy, unpolished but not unprofessional, the guitars crunch and the snare pings so loudly your head feels like it is caving in under the weight. So pretty much exactly what you want from an old-school death metal release, especially one built with doom influences.
Seep mastermind Vomitus has commented that this album is an ode to the unpolished death metal obscurities from 90s/00s that they love, and this certainly reads like a love letter to this era. A throwback to when death metal was as raw and heavy as humanly possible, yet updated for the modern world. And it’s not one all-paced, the record managing to fit in quite some variation throughout its run time. One look at the artwork should let you know if this is your sort of thing and if that draws you in, you won’t be disappointed.
8/10.
Comments