CONTAMINATED
CONTAMINATED “Celebratory Beheading”
By Dr. Abner Mality
I remember these Aussies as being pretty sick puppies on their previous album “Final Man” and I’m overjoyed to see they haven’t lost their touch. Yes, we are currently drowning in loads of sick and primitive death metal, but when done right, the genre can still obliterate. Obliteration is absolutely what CONTAMINATED is after.
They strike to kill right away with the flamethrower blast of “Suffer Minutiae”. It’s obvious the boys have scraped the deepest levels of Hell’s sewer to get a truly gnarly sound in the tradition of AUTOPSY, UNDERGANG, CARDIAC ARREST and the like. They keep things fast and violent in the first third of the album, unleashing top notch titles like “Cosmic Shit Show” and “Beneath Empty Sockets”. As the album crawls on, the riffs become more discrete and dare I say it, catchier? “Final Hours” and “Apex C.H.U.D.” in particular have the kind of skanking riffs that cause you to twitch violently. But they never let up on that foul and filthy sound that must be co-sponsored by Roto-Rooter.
It’s just rotten death metal for the sake of it. Not over-thought or analyzed and delivered with pride. CONTAMINATED may be the best band of this kind from Australia.