Today we shall steer clear from crushing adjectives and dark semantics. We will skip that place where the slime lives (wink) and tip toe through a dissection (another wink) of this Philippine Death Metal masterpiece - a description I am sure the members will modestly deny, but I call it as such because they're the only local metal band that has sent me an accurately sized free shirt! Hah!
The words Death Metal and prolific seem ironic to be in the same sentence, but Alex - guitarist and founding member is just that, known in the scene for his Boss HM2 Chainsaw illness and high standards for metal appreciation. Like an everlasting stream, Alex has not only streamed but churned out extinct cdr demos and has remained faithful to the do-it-yourself rules of the extreme-music underground circuit.
If you are a newbie and you lay dying to be in the loop with Alex and Punebre, check this interview from 600 years ago when Covid was ravaging the old world. Hopefully it gets you on board and be in the same Necronomicon page as we are!
On to the album...
Musically, these lads make their point and go with most songs clocking in at an urgent 2 minutes or less and only a couple going beyond 3 minutes - must be torture to powerviolence and grind fans - although it's no secret what these guys are capable of doing musically - coming from well-known tech death and thrash outfits, their bassist Christian will leave you fretless and it is still being debated if Ryan, the drummer is actually human - if he gets the flu the entire metal scene in the south of Luzon might collapse.
But they don't need napalm to take out a rabbit, no need for a shovel when a spoon will suffice. Being in the center of their crosshairs is enough for their masterful storytelling to take you on a terrifying lesson on local socio-cultural horrors.
The first 2 tracks are standard death metal bangers which gives you a feeling of the band just warming up and trying to see if their pedalboards and cables work. My interpretation is Burning the Pot and Holy Mou spits and waggle its protruding tongue upon the absurdity of religion that dominates the land. Balete Overdrive and The Burning Crusade keeps the death metal chainsaw well-oiled and going but then things take an ominous turn with Itim, as a slight change is noticeable in their Crocs-armored vocalist Ian's singing, giving the lyrics a little clarity, if only Itim can be played to all morning commuters, it should be enough to wake the dumb cattle from their deep slumber - which takes us to Hele Hele - Danny Nelson from Malignancy front and center on the mic - for some strange reason this reminds me of Palahniuk's Lullaby but it I would bet my donkey that it's a Cthulhu reference. Shaken and Rattled obviously a tribute to the 80's classic and The Great White Grin - Alex is not a Diyos but a Jaws enthusiast. Hah!
The Ghost of Pepsi Paloma - literally in reference to the legend of a young beautiful celebrity victim, exploited and eventually pushed to take her own life after being abused and humiliated by powerful predators. One of the first songs that they released to the public, playfully hidden in a Robert Palmer pained pop chorus - a perfect amalgamation and conflation of multiple tragedies and scandals including the 349 tansan scandal for geezers like me! I'd take this song over Spolarium anytime! double Hah!
My favorite here is the title track - Why? Because that is the only time they used their other guitar pedals! (Also evident in Prom Knife by the way)
Sa Dako Paroon (Sadako... get it?) gives you glimpse of the future (triple wink) on what they are capable of.
Now to wrap this up before my lunch break ends, the individuality of this album rests on how refreshing the writing and production is. The cover itself is the antithesis of your garden-variety Death Metal art. In this day and age the most violent and brutal metal covers are ironically tired and numbing. they look like energy drink and MMA shirts. But here, we are instead greeted by a homage to Pinoy Horror Komiks with the ubiquitous-in-every-Pinoy home Virgin Mary figurine turned into a Manananggal, flying victoriously with baby Cthulhu in tow made by none other than Ernest Concepcion.
Lyrically, the band doesn't attempt to create a pretentious and ridiculous vision of Death Metal that deals with topics that don't exist here! They don't need to compensate with sweep pickings and corpse paint that will melt and reveal your acne infested round Asian face once you get out of the rehearsal studio, come on!!
They have, to my surprise, created a work of art, a subgenre that every working class Gen-Z/MIllenial metalhead can relate to! or Not! I am more than willing to play this on repeat and sacrifice my company-issued laptop until it melts into oblivion.
Call it Deep Cut Horror Core
or DC HorrorCore! HAH!
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