Nothing keeps your cheeks rosy and your heart warm in the cold, Northern winters like some good ol’ technical brutal death metal. Just in time for Christmas, from the opposite end of the globe in Australia, Revulsed have dropped their second full-length album, Cerebral Contamination (Everlasting Spew Records) which drags you through a near thirty-six-minute cesspool of guttural vocals, some slam, and highly proficient guitar licks.

To say this album is abrasive is an understatement, but that is what sells this subgenre of heavy music, for sure. “Delusional Servitude” is the first track that really grabbed my attention as it mixes together all of the usual elements of death metal, including a really well placed guitar solo before dropping some slam. This helps break up the monotony that can be technical death metal with so much guitar wankery that, at its worst,  can honestly be too much.

“Beyond The Depths Of The Subconscious” continues to push this same approach even further with another guitar solo (not over the top) right before a beat or two pause until the song kicks back in. Slightly slower tempo is seen for a short time before launching back up into the fiery shredding over gutturals to close out the track.

Another track that does well in trying to chop up any monotony is “Inconceivable Hallucinations” as the high tempo portion of Revulsed really only kicks in towards the bridge/solo. The rest of the track skips around different riffs and slight time signature changes that help make you feel uncomfortable, but wanting to know what is next.

Overall, Cerebral Contamination from Revulsed is a good sophomore release, especially in a subgenre that can feel very generic/cookie cutter, if you will. This group is beyond technically proficient as they can seamlessly pull off many different faces of what makes up a technical/brutal death metal band, and these Aussies have all the potential moving forward.

Buy the album here:
https://bit.ly/3tBmWgy

7 / 10
TIM LEDIN