Cerebral Engorgement - Gastrointestinal Bleeding - Gore House Productions 2013

Artwork by Rian Oktanto Art

Cerebral Engorgement are a three piece Slamming Brutal Death Metal band hailing out of San Francisco, California.  Since 2007, they've had three full lengths, each of which better than its predecessor.   The vocals have noticeably gotten a lot better with each release.  This album allows vocalist Mike Simon's gutturals to shine through, proving he is a fecal gargling sewer dweller.  Mike Simon is also in charge of the drumming on the album, which stands out as being the key part of the puzzle.  Fast and relentless at times, slow and brutally detailed at others, the drums do not get boring.

 Also, towards the end of the album are some punk rock influenced riffs that are both unpredictable and fun.  In fact, guitarist Jesse Terres has quite a few memorable riffs throughout "Gastrointestinal Bleeding".

On one hand, this is plain and simple barbaric Slam.  On the other, it is unique, catchy, detailed Slam.  At just over thirty minutes, it is kind of long for what it is and it may start to seem redundant, but like I said, listen for those details; more and more will come alive with each listen.
"Shitnami Shitstorm" is a stupid intro track that starts things off on a really bad note.  I do not know what the sample is from, but it is not setting any mood other than over-the-top silly, something the rest of the album is not.  "Gastrointestinal Bleeding" is surprisingly inventive and refreshing.  The production quality and ultra heavy, pounding song structure as soon as the album begins brings to mind Kraanium's "Post Mortal Coital Fixation".
Cerebral Engorgement used to be a more straight forward goregrind band, and that definitely shines through in some parts (and song names).  Despite the clean and crisp production, things feel raw and passionate and at times just unpolished enough.  It is apparent that the band has thought these riffs through very thoroughly.
"Double Penetrated at The Dinner Table" is one of my favorite songs on here, containing one huge build up to slams and blasts so powerful you may actually feel like you are being double penetrated.
 Things keep getting slower and deeper and more murky as you near end of the record.  There are definitely some very creative riffs on here. These are highlighted and brought out more than usual due to the unique mixture in drumming styles going on between the ultra heavy slams and riffs.  Think early days of Analdicktion mixed with modern day Kraanium.

These days everyone is all up in arms about the drums.  With almost every release in this genre people are asking "Are they triggered?"  "Are they sampled or programmed" "Are they even real?"  Sometimes I even wonder "Can you tell?"  While I definitely see the value in these questions and agree to some extent that real, untriggered drumming has a passion and rawness that remains uncomparable, I also refuse to completely write off music if it has programmed drums or over produced anything.  There is a time and place for different sounds.  Listening to music is always different and let's not forget: subjective.
If you like it you like it if you don't you don't.  I happen to really like "Gastrointestinal Bleeding" by Cerebral Engorgement and I hope you do too.  With so many new Slam albums recently and so many bands cloning each other, "Gastrointestinal Bleeding" does a good job of refreshing the familiar.

Purchase the album HERE

Keep up with the band on Facebook HERE

Interview with Andrew Ferris of Analdicktion - 2011

I was lucky enough to have a very quick interview with Andrew Ferris, guitarist and vocalist in Analdicktion.

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Cerebral Reviewment- First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions!
Can you explain a little about your writing process?

Andrew Ferris- Thanks a lot for having us! Well, I write the songs and send the guitar tracks to everyone online. And then see how they go when we try to play them in the studio. If they don’t turn out so well, then we just throw the song away and move on to the next one. We must have written about 26 songs before the album and only chose 14. We’re very fucking picky. There’s at least 2 songs on the album we would have rather of not been on there and never play live haha!

CR-  Your new album, “SLUTS” is really great!  Any future touring plans?  Any U.S. visits coming up?  Can you guys say anything about the ep you are working on?

AF-  Thanks a lot man! As for touring, we will be hitting up Indonesia for 3 days, and then a date in Malaysia a week after.  We will also be playing Bangcock Deathfest in Thailand in December.  As for a U.S. tour, it’s highly unlikely anytime soon because most of us are still trying to stabilize our lives.  I’m currently in school in Thailand and next year Ash will have to join National Service Army (mandatory in Singapore) for 2 years, so it would be difficult to travel so far for too long.  But it is too early to say whether or not we will.  We’ll just see how it goes, but we will definitely be going to the U.S. (and everywhere else) in the future.  I especially would love to play CIM since I was born in Illinois and it was the first Brutal Death Metal/Grind show I ever saw (back in 2006).
The EP we are working on…it’s gonna be a split 7” with Indonesian Grindcore band Proletar.  We’re gonna be doing 4 songs for it.  The songs will showcase more of our Deathgrind/Goregrind side than anything else and we’re straying away from anything that comes off as too misogynistic or generic gore.  It’s more gonna be like an assault on scene bullshit that pisses us off or that we just find plain humorous.  We also recorded a Disrupt song (Human Garbage) for a Disrupt tribute album. It should be out in December from Power It Up Records.





CR-  How did your relationship with Scrotum Jus develop? How about Rotworks? Rotworks truly has some amazing artwork!

AF-  We were about to self-release an E.P. of 5 songs or use them for a split.  I guess word got out that we were looking to release with a label.  Aziz from the label contacted us.  When we met up, he told us we should record a full-length album at a different studio instead.  We agreed and started writing new songs for the album, entered the studio in December 2010 and recorded the album.  He got the album out as a split release with Sevared Records.  We owe a lot to Aziz.  If not for him we wouldn’t have made this much progress in such a short time…we’d be stuck with some self-released 5 song CD-R wondering where to go next hahaha!  We’ve been good friends with him since, he’s a blast to drink and talk shit with! :D
As for Rotworks, Rotworks is Arif from Wormrot, whom we are very close to.  He also did our logo too.  It was a no brainer to get a shirt design from him.  His shit is always sick!

CR-  A lot of different influences can be heard on the new album. Can you give us a few of your favorite bands, of any genre?

AF-  The different influences…that has mostly to do with our indecisiveness of what kind of band we want to be.  The earlier songs we wrote were more Slam orientated and the newer ones more Deathgrind/Goregrind/Powerviolence so everything really got mixed up for the album.

For Brutal Death/Slam: Short Bus Pile Up, Pus Vomit, Down From The Wound, Aversion To Life, Gorevent…for Grind/Powerviolence: Pulmonary Fibrosis, Captain Cleanoff, Circle Of Dead Children, Wormrot, Spazz, Jig-Ai, BruceXCampbell, Jesus Crost, Looking For An Answer, Wormrot, Squash Bowels, Cock and Ball Torture…ah and so much more!  Sludge band Black Sheep Wall had some impact on us like their low-tuning and over-lapping chords with single string notes for extra heaviness. Sonic Youth and various Punk Rock/Noise shit for noise and pick-scratches/feedback!
As for our personal favourite bands, we honestly don’t listen to much stuff related to the genres we are playing.  Personally, I’ve been listening to Tyler, The Creator, Mac Miller, Wu-Tang Clan, The Beatles, Lagwagon, The Wonder Years, Pianos Become The Teeth, Electric Light Orchestra, The Postal Service, and Westbound Train.  I try not to listen to too much stuff that’s related to the music we play, because it will make me think too much of what we should be doing.  Like I can’t just chill and listen to Brutal Death/Grind because I’d be thinking ‘Oh fuck, that part is sick, I need to write something like that’…kinda frustrates me at times haha!



ANALDICKTION

PROLETAR

POWER IT UP RECORDS

SCROTUM JUS RECORDS

ROTWORKS

Analdicktion - Sluts - 2011 Scrotum Jus Records

Analdicktion is a four piece Singaporean band with many influences thrown in.

Ash Azman-Vocals

Andrew Ferris-Guitar,Vocals

Irwan Shah-Bass

Aidil Ismail-Drums

Possibly the most creative, brutal, entertaining, all around fun to listen to brutal death/Slam/Grind/Gore/PowerViolence/Whatever album of it's year, 2011.  So many different elements seem to effortlessly flow together for Analdicktion.  Oh and that name!

If I HAD to label them to some sub-genre, I would be tempted just to say Experimental Brutal Death.  Thankfully, everything that anyone ever says is an opinion that has been made up of countless other opinions.  They call call themselves Death Grinding Gore-Violence.  Sounds great to me!  I highly recommend buying this album!  If you are even a slight fan of any of the aforementioned types of music, this album is for you!  Every genre that people are calling this album, or want to call it, is flawlessly performed and unexpectedly flows to the next.



"Fingerbang Abortion" starts with an intro riff reminiscent of Short Bus Pile Up.  Then you hear the disgustingly powerful gutturals lead you into a groovy slamming riff punctuated my creative drum fills.  I particularly love the pinch harmonics around 1:10.  Short song, great album opener.

Then comes “Whoreaphobic”, which immediately slows down to a straightforward slam with everything coming together very nicely.  Fast part around 1:30 is a welcome and creative change leading right into the best part and closing riff of the song.  Vocalist Ash Azman does a beautiful job here of presenting vocals BEHIND the riff and not in front, thus only enhancing it’s clarity and fullness.

"Gagged and Grinded" is a nice mix of thrash and grind with some pretty straightforward shouting vocals.  I love it.  It reminds me that this genre is supposed to be fun and doesn’t always need to sound "brutal".  Actually, if done right like it is here, boundaries can be pushed rather far while still maintaining the same feeling and returning to the original brutality of Analdicktion, or whatever band.


"Phrenetic Impaled Vaginal Dissection" starts by grinding your face off while throwing a very awesome mix of vocals in and a slammy ending.  Another very fun and catchy short tune.
 "Quantity of a Human Defilement" starts out with a catchy riff and plays off of it until it slows down to an even catchier, simpler riff thirty seconds in.  Then the track gets peppered with harmonics and sliding, groovy guitar work only to lure you in to it’s sudden end.  This is also the longest track at 3:30, I love that this is full of short songs.  This genre can get boring, but not here.  Proof is evident that this band can grind out fast songs and longer ones, and never sacrifice good writing.

Next up is a cover of the Nirvana song “Anorexorscist” which I do not need to say anything else about.
The song “Semen Covered Butchered Whores” is rightly named and is over before you are done wrapping your brain around the words semen covered butchered whores.  It is relentlessly awesome and has some hardcore elements to it that leave the listener wanting more.

Currently my favorite track has to be “Too Kvlt To Fvck”.   Atmospheric climbing harmonic riffing leading up to….black metal?  Am I fvcking with you?  No, and just wait for the ending.
"Teenage Assault Bukkake Ceremony".  Super low goregrind vocals that I didn’t like as much at first but they don’t get boring and they grew on me.  Simple, short song.

"Campaign For Emo Destruction" is 38 seconds of exciting grindcore thrash with gutturals and gang vocals and a great sample at the end.  Ready or not, you are propelled directly into "Severed Scene Slut", a brutal, comfortable return to their specific brand of slamming brutal death, ending with their slowest slam yet.  Could have done without the sample at the end here.  I am over it though, great song.
"Genetically Abused Youth" keeps a steady pace and plays around one main riff until the 1:10 mark where it holds it’s pace but alters into a super groovy riff that I love!  Perfect way to end this album starting at 2:20.  Everything slows down to an energetic slam and then speeds back up, sending this album out with a bang.

To summarize, "SLUTS" is a must have album for you fans of extreme, brutal, grinding death and more importantly, unforgettably creative music.  Each member that makes up Analdicktion has mastered their craft.

"SLUTS" was released on the now defunct Scrotum Jus Records.  They are now signed to Solvent Abuse Records

Get "SLUTS" free from the band 
HERE!

SOLVENT ABUSE RECORDS