Dying Fetus "Purification Through Violence" CD

Descripción Track 8 Napalm Death cover
“Purification Through Violence” is Maryland brutal death metal band Dying Fetus’s debut album released August 6th, 1996. This is an unrelenting and filthy first album, and while Dying Fetus had released a couple demos before this project, this is still notably impressive for a first full length album. Dying Fetus obviously takes a lot of inspiration from hardcore punk and grindcore but they fuse it with brutal death metal in their own unique way which results in an extremely visceral sound.
Dying Fetus really sets themselves apart with their vocals. There are two different vocalists during this era of the band, Jason Netherton doing the higher screams and John Gallagher doing the low gutturals. Both vocalists are extremely impressive in their own right and when they layer their vocals on top of each other it sounds fantastic but John Gallagher’s gutturals are really the most noteworthy performance here. John Gallagher’s gutturals are so freakishly low it actually doesn’t even make any sense, he might have some of the lowest gutturals in all of death metal. The guitars on this album have a sharply distorted tone and while there are minimal actual guitar solos on this album, Dying Fetus has this signature guitar technique where they are playing these high pitched riffs that sound like they’re throwing razor blades at their guitars but I think it's probably closer to triplet picking pinch harmonics or something like that. The songwriting is really well done, it's dynamic and engaging, every member is playing their instrument extremely well and they all get their time to shine on this album.
My favorite part of this album is the beginning of the final song “Scum” which is supposed to be a Napalm Death cover but Dying Fetus really put their own spin on it, you can hear someone choking and coughing up phlegm for about twenty seconds, the drums come in promptly, followed by the bass guitar and even some 808's making for a really groovy intro. Someone violently screams something indiscernible, and then the guitars and John Gallagher’s low gutturals come in. Although they didn’t technically write that song, it sounds so much better than the original in my opinion, they definitely had their own take on it, and it’s gotta be one of my favorite intros in all of death metal.
Dying Fetus definitely show off their own unique sound here and it’s violent heavy but still technical and dynamic. I highly recommend this album for anyone who enjoys grindcore and/or hardcore punk but might want to get into brutal death metal or might just want to find something heavier or groovier in general. This album only kicks off what I think is one of the best four album runs in all of death metal and nobody else does it quite like this.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=Li_enC-G0tA&list=RDLi_enC-G0tA&start_radio=1