By Jonni D

Artwork for Festering Odes To Deformity by Caustic VomitCaustic Vomit – they were never really going to make it as a pop punk band with a name like that, now were they?  All jokes aside, with their debut release the Russian four-piece leans on a core death doom sound, augmented by further ventures into other areas of extremity, resulting in an impressively varied demo.

The opening ‘Intro/Immured In Devouring Rot’ utilizes cacophonous feedback loops punctuated by tolling bells, before leading into a torturously crawling doom section with discordant cadences and guttural vocals so low they seem to emanate from beneath the instrumentation.  It’s an unsettling effect, but a stroke of genius from a mixing standpoint – throughout the entirety of the nine minutes, there’s an encroaching sense of dread of Lovecraftian proportions weighing heavy over every moment.

‘Churning Bowel Tunnels’ temporarily ups the pace with a blackened thrash segment; stabbing riffs and tremolo picked leads easing into a mid-tempo groove which will have any Autopsy fan salivating.  The grooving elements are even more dominant with the slamming syncopated rhythms and backbeats of ‘Once Coffined Malformities’.  The track allows for protracted moments of silence, adding to the pervading sinister tone, with the unexpected flourish of neo-traditional harmonies showing that amidst all the bludgeoning the band still has a competent grasp of melody.

At a lean 30 minutes, ‘Festering Odes To Deformity’ is a succinct profile of a band with quite a few tricks up their sleeve.  If they continue to embrace all aspects of extreme metal as competently as they do here, Caustic Vomit may be spewing up even more delightfully horrendous offerings in future.

  • ‘Festering Odes To Deformity’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.

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