Corpus Offal is the surviving core from the now-defunct underground death dealers Cerebral Rot, whose two releases, Odious Descent into Decay and Excretion of Mortality, received coverage here from AMG’s very own Ferrous Beuller. Responsible for a large portion of the Cerebral Rot sound, guitarist/vocalist Ian Schwab and guitarist Clyle Lindstrom (Fetid, Caustic Wound) have surrounded themselves with a new rhythm section and a refreshed moniker. After a promising two-song demo in 2024, Corpus Offal wasted no time sculpting a handful of other sanguineous songs to include on its 20 Buck Spin eponymous debut album. After laying eyes on Karina Monzon’s monstrous cover art, my mind first went to Autopsy‘s Severed Survival.1 This intriguing aspect of Corpus Offal‘s aesthetic excited me and had me salivating at the chance to dig into this newest vile vessel.
Corpus Offal plays fucking death metal.2 Period. Free of any thrashy overtones or proggy atmospherics, Corpus Offal arrives to offend your pedestrian sensibilities like a bucket of bloody guts splattered across a white tile floor at your feet. With the cover giving me such strong Autopsy vibes, I was happy to hear that the music on Corpus Offal is also very reminiscent of Severed Survival. Schwab and Lindstrom have hung a ton of fleshy riffs (“Gorging Gastric Decedent”) and chaotic solo work (“Spinous Forms of Mortal Abhorrence”) up on Texas chainsaw-sized meat hooks for bleeding. And while a fair amount of Cerebral Rotteness and Fetid fecundity remains in Corpus Offal‘s sound, Billy Anderson’s3 less cavernous mix and master lends an extra bite of sharp evisceration to these proceedings. Further pustulating the sores of this cadaverous corpse are Jesse Shreibman’s (Bell Witch) suppurating drums and Jason Sachs’ viscously bubbling bass work. This is moldy green ham and rotten egg death metal, so pull up a chair, Sam I Am, because Corpus Offal doesn’t give a shit whether you like it or not.
Corpus Offal‘s highlight is Ian Schwab’s vocal performance, which combines the gurgling gutturals of David Torturdød (Undergang, Phrenelith) with the bellicose burblings of Antti Boman (Demilich). Schwab spews forth like a bulbously engorged spore, leaking loads of purulent pestilence. His gravelly gurglinations douse the “Service for a Vacant Coffin”-like4 swing and swagger of “Essence of Dissolution” and the riff-filthiness of eponymous track “Corpus Offal” in globs of effluent ooze. Again, this is a nod to Billy Anderson’s great booth work, as each instrument has enough toxic air to breathe, and the poisonous fumes of Schwab’s vocals are at the forefront instead of being hidden in a haze of cavernous cacophony. Corpus Offal‘s unique brand of sewer core would have New York City rats running for cover, but even a death metal sewer starts to stink after too long.
Corpus Offal‘s debut clocks in at just under fifty minutes, and while I enjoy it just fine, some of the viscous fluids could have been allowed to drain. A case in point would be the wholly superfluous intro, “Purging Creation,” as it reminds me primarily of the equally unnecessary intro to Seep‘s “Encased in Shit,” both taking up about the same amount of time before getting down to business. No song on Corpus Offal clocks in under the six-minute mark, and two of them, “Corpus Offal” (7:44) and “Ripened Psychosis” (8:31), very well could have. The goriest offender is album closer “Secreted Effluence (Spilling).” This twelve-minute track begins with an intriguing guitar-plucked intro that, when repeated at just around the eight-and-a-half-minute mark, might have been an appropriate time to close the coffin, but instead, meanders and progressively slows to its death, having overstayed its welcome.
I spent time revisiting the Cerebral Rot catalog in preparation for this review, and I can confidently say Ferrous scored those albums appropriately. The promise imbued on Cerebral Rot‘s final release has translated into an excellent baseline for Corpus Offal to build off of. This is grotesquely fun death metal that cares not for the proclivities of an over-educated audience. These knuckles are dragging and bloody. With some editing, I believe Corpus Offal has even greater things to give, and I’ll be looking forward to their next awful excretion.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: 20 Buck Spin | Bandcamp
Website: Instagram
Releases Worldwide: March 21st, 2025
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