Back in the era of the Great Plague (2021), I was exposed to the debut by long-lurking Bay Area death metal scuzzers Laceration. Demise was an entertaining old school platter of sensory destruction, borrowing from legends like Immolation and early days Death to deliver the hammer to the locked-down, infected masses. It showed high levels of technical finesse and songwriting chops and I looked forward to hearing what came next for them. What comes next is sophomore outing I Erode, and it finds Laceration even more proficient, confident, and ready to kick teeth and crack bones. Still borrowing from genre greats, they take a rough and nasty core OSDM sound and season it in the abyss with stunningly melodic and regal guitar work. That means you get a bit of beauty with a whole lotta beast, and that’s the way to the heart of an old time death fan.
After the obligatory mood-setting intro that sounds like something from a shitty horror film, Laceration come to cut on proper opener “Excised.” It’s a gleefully blasting, pummelling affair with beefy, cargo-beshorted death riffs trudging grooves in your brain as gruesome death roars and frantic drumming tenderize you. It’s got more than a little Immolation in its DNA and the careful listener will discern traces of James Murphy-era Death and bits and pieces of Morgoth as well. The slick, hyper-melodic solos are a stark relief from the caveman pounding and knuckle-dragging excesses, and that my friends is what makes for entertaining death metal! The ghastly good times keep coming on “Sadistic Enthrallment” with its Immolation-esque thrills and Malevolent Creation-ish chills. It’s fast, furious, and technically impressive, with knotty riffs twisting and bending left and right, but things never feel too techy or wonky. This tune really grabs the listener and I’ve been replaying it to the point of maniacal obsession. “Cancerality” is another winner, full of hyperactive thrashing and ear-trashing blasts and sizzling guitar heroics with loving nods to Immolation and Suffocation dotting the way like severed heads on stakes. If this one doesn’t get you outside throwing garbage cans at passing cars, your best days are behind you.
“Impaling Sorrow” is a nasty, brutish, and short stab at the frontal lobe, and I don’t know what Cazares is screaming but at one point it sounds like “Mulligan!” and now I will be replicating that noise whenever I hit an errant shot during my drunken golf forays. So what are the downsides? First and foremost is the shortness of the album (how often do you hear that at AMG?). At a skinny 32 minutes, Laceration leave me wanting much more. The style of death they execute isn’t so smothering that you need to come up for air at 32 minutes, and 2 more killer cuts would make this the ideal length. I could also argue “Vile Incarnate” is a bit more rote and standard death than the rest of its peers, but it’s not bad at all. The production by Matt Harvey of Exhumed / Gruesome is first-rate. The guitars have ample heft, the drums sound great, and the mix is spot on. Most importantly, things aren’t overly polished and this sounds like a filthy pile of tentacle shit. Kudos.
First things first. Donnie Snalles is a sickly talented lead guitarist. The dude rips it up on every track with gorgeous solos and stunning fretboard gymnastics. Along with Luke Cazares, he also crafts an extra large body bag full of ace death riffs, crushing grooves, and sick flourishes that accent the core death constructs in elegant and horrific ways. While some bands might let the melodic elements take up too much space and thereby reduce the overall heaviness, these cats know how to put the brutal first and though you get some seriously refined moments, the boot is never far behind. Cazares is a great death vocalist, with a harsh, ragged roar that spews the stench of olden days death loudly and proudly. Aerin Johson beats the unholy fuck out of his kit and by extension, you. There are plenty of blast bits but he’s best when the guitars find a sick groove and he locks in and follows them into the maelstrom with smart fills and rolls. This is a very talented collective and they could do straight-up tech death all day, but fortunately, their first love is caveman death, and boy do they deliver it.
Laceration have a kind of “it” factor. You can’t always describe what that is, but you know it when you get mugged by it and wake up in the gutter with no shoes, wallet, or kidneys. Their 2021 debut was all sorts of fun, and I Erode takes everything to the next level and shows a band ready to elbow their way higher up the death metal food chain. Get this in your puke bucket, pronto.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Websites: facebook.com/lacerationofficial | instagram.com/laceration_official
Releases Worldwide: July 26th, 2024
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