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CAUSTIC PHLEGM “Purulent Apocalypse”
CAUSTIC PHLEGM “Purulent Apocalypse”
By Dr. Abner Mality
It’s no secret that I’m a lover of all that is icky, repulsive and sickening when it comes to metal. I regard most instances of “sick” death metal as a challenge. One thing I insist on, though: a song can be grisly but it still has to be a SONG. As long as I can detect an interesting structure, there’s no limit to how heavy I can go. And I know I’m not the only one to feel this way.
CAUSTIC PHLEGM is a one man wrecking crew helmed by a UK guy named Evan Vasilakos and he wants to create music in the vein of the nastiest early CARCASS and Swedish HM-2 death metal. A laudable goal. But I’m not such a total sucker for the Swedish chainsaw sound that I’ll bite on anything with that filthy grind. CAUSTIC PHLEGM has some of the most bowel-eroding slime covered guitar sounds ever conjured. Unfortunately, the sound is not coupled with any great riffs. “Purulent Apocalypse” sounds like a guy just jacking around with an HM-2 pedal set to the highest distortion level. For the most part, nothing here has the true bite of the best GRAVE or CARCASS. It’s like Vasilakos expects to get by just on scuzzy guitar sound alone.
The album does get better as it goes along...”Impose To Decompose” and “Soft Bones” are genuinely strong death metal tunes with more memorable riffs. But a lot of this is just flat noise, like “Flesh Melt Contagion” and “Blister Bliss”. And the songs are too long as well. Very little of this should go past the four minute mark. The vocals are the super pitched shifted gurgling mess you’d expect, with tons of reverb. Drumming is as basic and uninteresting as it gets. Surprisingly, my favorite part of the album are the creepy and super low-fi synth intros and outros that sound like they are coming from the bottom of a well. The opening of “Fouled, Infected and Infested” is truly chilling and I like the way the eerie keys accentuate the gruiesome riffs of the title track.
Sick it is, but I need a little bit more than just that. CAUSTIC PHLEGM might just have it in them to create a true classic of death metal sickness….but “Purulent Apocalypse” is not it.
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