Despite signing with a big-name label, it’s extremely refreshing to find out that hardcore-influenced death metallers 200 Stab Wounds have retained everything that makes their sound great: pounding, catchy riffs; a rancid atmosphere; and thrashy guitar fills when necessary.
Manual Manic Procedures (Metal Blade Records) is a brilliantly crafted, nine-song, thirty-minute journey. It’s lean, it’s mean, and really quite clean(ly produced). Having recently released under the Maggot Stomp banner, there was concern that the band’s next release would lean into a more digestible style.
That’s not the case.
The decision to pack opener “Hands Of Eternity” to the brim with a sensational, adrenalizing build-up that gets lit aflame by a deranged bell toll seemed risky at first, but a galloping stampede soon breaks out, and the song itself is filled with so much goddamn charisma and might.
It is merely a sign of things to come.
The girthy and viscous tendencies of “Defiled Gestation” features raucous progressions that breed dopamine. Cheeky drum lines and a bumbling bass throughout makes for a brash, efficient track. The title offering is chunky and rotund, aided by surgical drum arrangements. Once more, a lumbering bass guitar reinforces the song’s visceral proclivities.
“Release The Stench” sees riffs become flat-out fetid by the end, and album closer “Parricide” is poetry in motion, string-wise. The short-lived “Gross Abuse” is a sub-two-minute banger and has tangible synergy emanating from its presence. These guys never needed a lot of time to get their point across and establish dominance.
Throw in a frantic, uncontrollable tremolo and lyrics such as “you cannot run / it’s too late” and overall, Manual Manic Procedures is a bona fide stomper. There are truly at least half a dozen riffs and fills that stop time once they materialize.
And the backing of a major label only makes this record feel more validated and supported by the masses. Which in turn brings ever more excitement when it comes to 200 Stab Wounds and what lies in store for them moving forward.
Buy the album here:
https://www.metalblade.com/200stabwounds/
8 / 10
MATT COOK