More famous for its art and architecture, the Sicilian capital of Palermo also happens to be the home of something a lot nastier and ghastly. No, not its history of organised crime and murder. Something far more brutal than that: Death metal act Becerus.
Creating music that sounds like something wet being slurped from the ground and consumed by drooling pigs is no easy task but vocalist Mario Musumeci, guitarist/bassist Giorgio Trombino and their apparently cave-dwelling drummer Paul Bicipitus certainly seem to have the knack.
Second full-length album Troglodyte (Everlasting Spew Records) finds the band in particularly Neanderthal form as riffs from the darkest, dankest caves make their way to the surface with a uniquely fetid nineties aroma. There’s no room for subtlety or nuance here, just primitive horror with as much bile gargling as you can stomach.
The ominous drums of “Rise Of The Energumens” are quickly blasted to one side by the record’s true opener, “Obfuscated By Imbecility.” Featuring vocals that sound like someone vomiting on request, it’s obviously total carnage but also surprisingly melodic with a strong groove and dive-bombing guitar solos.
The vocals to “Aggressive Illiterate” are delivered almost hypnotically but possess a slightly different, higher-pitched quality on the violently schizophrenic “Primordial Instinct.” Different styles don’t so much merge together on these tracks as explode like an industrial-sized vat of spaghetti. Fucking riffs and sauce everywhere.
“Bestius” is total and unashamed Cannibal Corpse worship while “Cacato” is an avalanche of death grunts and screaming, and “Pathetic Bovine Humour” sounds like a bull being castrated without anaesthetic. The title track boasts churning riffs, a blasting rhythm section and grunts, grunts and more grunts while “Brosura” features even more interesting gurgling noises, and the insanely fast “Progressive Mental Retardation” is a blur of riffs, snorts and monkey noises.
“Serpicus Ebbeth Macagno” is another stupidly fast cut with pneumatic drumming and vocals which need to be scooped up with a shovel before easing down into a slow, sludgy crawl. There’s even more of a lack of subtlety on “Fat Laughters In Absolute Degradation” before the album ends in a steaming pile of caveman offal on the appropriately titled “Grunt ‘Em All.”
To the untrained ear, Troglodyte is probably just a mulch of putrid riffs, drums and syrupy vocals but there is so much crammed into each relatively short track that it’s actually impressive. As much as they seem keen to hide it, Becerus displays some serious musical muscle. There’s a definite method to this caveman madness, and evolution is coming.
Buy the album here:
https://everlastingspew.bandcamp.com/album/troglodyte
8 / 10
GARY ALCOCK
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