Eight years ago, Australian brutal death duo Revulsed dropped one of the most overlooked slabs of quality murderizing, Infernal Atrocity. Dripping with grimy licks, slithering riffs, and enough pinch harmonics to pop your nipples right off your torso, Infernal Atrocity demanded the attention of all who would encounter it. The fact that it was the band’s debut outing makes it only that much more impressive. Now it’s 2023, going on 2024. Revulsed found their way into Everlasting Spew’s roster, and at long last sophomore follow-up Cerebral Contamination prepares for ultimate unleashment.
Extreme guttural evisceration is the name of Revulsed’s game, and in the eight years spanning between releases, nothing about that changed even one itty bitty bit. Their slimy Suffocation meets Defeated Sanity meets Unfathomable Ruination style remains as intact as ever, boasting deceptively hooky riffs wrapped around gnarled compositions that will challenge the mind as much as they will destroy the spine. At a tight and trim thirty-five minutes spread out over ten songs (and one superfluous intro), Cerebral Contamination makes quick work of flaying your flesh with the sound of music brutal death metal, all narrated by a battalion of subterranean gurgles. On the production side of things, Cerebral Contamination takes a minor hit compared to Infernal Atrocity. While the latter sounded suitably rough and gritty, this new outing suffers from relatively high gloss, vocals that present a bit too far forward in the mix, and some plastic-sounding bass triggers. Nonetheless, most listeners won’t be offended so long as they remain focused on crushing riffs, undulating song structures, and ugly vox—just as they ought to be.
Cerebral Contamination by Revulsed
Cerebral Contamination may be brutal, complex, and bludgeoning, but it somehow lacks the same feral vitality of Infernal Atrocity. Surely this issue doesn’t originate from a dearth of pure, murderous energy, as opener proper “Equitable Sufferance” clearly demonstrates with its serrated riffs and vicious blasts. “Asomatous Existence” similarly grooves and swerves just as hard as Revulsed’s prior highlights like “Transmutational Craniotomy,” so the problem does not lie in the band’s sense of rhythm. Rather, my reservations about Cerebral Contamination come from a place of memorability and distinction. This material, while incredibly heavy and suitably dense for the style, lacks the same palpable, animalistic ferocity that helped distinguish the band’s unstoppable debut. As a result of this shortcoming, most deeply felt in Cerebral Contamination’s first three and last two tracks, Revulsed’s latest treads a little too close to the term “generic” a little too often for my tastes.
That being said, there’s no denying that Revulsed are pros, unreasonably talented, and fully capable of razing the ground without mercy. “Delusional Servitude” serves as the first example of the band firing on all cylinders, blisteringly fast while remaining coherent and deliriously hooky. In fact, Cerebral Contamination’s entire midsection—spanning from track four all the way through track nine—houses Revulsed’s absolute best material. “Beyond the Depths of the Subconscious” riffs and noodles like the most vicious Suffocation track on speed and bath salts. “Perditional Enslavement” boasts its Defeated Sanity and Afterbirth heritage proudly, squealing with all of the wonderfully pinched, wriggling glee that you’d expect from a brutal band with such inspirations. Album highlights “Nefarious Devourment” and “Inconceivable Hallucinations” push even further, taking that heritage and shoving past it through excellent use of cymbal trickery, novel songwriting twists, and excessively groovy riffs that remind me only vaguely of Unbirth. Ultimately, these two tracks not only represent pure, untainted Revulsed, but also their current career best.
If Revulsed stuffed Cerebral Contaminations with songs of the same elevated caliber as the aforementioned “Nefarious Devourment,” the rating you see below would be higher. However, because this material sometimes lacks the same indelible zing that made Infernal Atrocity feel special—and because Revulsed clings too closely to their colleagues to truly stand-alone—my recommendation comes with small caveats. While not quite the barnstormer that is Infernal Atrocity, Cerebral Contamination remains a very good brutal death metal record that solidifies Revulsed as a major contender in the scene.
Rating: Very Good
DR: 51 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Websites: revulsed.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/RevulsedDM
Releases Worldwide: December 15th, 2023
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