Hopeful for 2026 - not if Engorgement have their way

 Well, 2026 is upon us, all those good wishes, the hopes of a peaceful and prosperous year. If Engorgement have their way it will be a really miserable year. 

The UK band will be released in March, glorying in the title They Rot Beneath Our Floor.

And rather than humble old me try to summarise the testament of black tales below is the press release in all its wonderful hyperbole. [I'm sure they are very nice boys who love their wives and mothers]. 

Here you go:

It’s been more than a decade since the UK’s Engorgement vomited forth their first full length album of unspeakable acts and heinous imaginings, the pulverising Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations – an album which Metal Kaoz succinctly summarised as being comprised of “serial killers, bowels and shitloads of blood”. Well now it is time for devotees of deviancy and slam addicts everywhere to rejoice, because Engorgement are finally set to unleash the second chapter in their tome of torture – They Rot Beneath Our Floor!

 

They Rot Beneath Our Floor is bookended by the unsettling strangeness of ‘Prelude To Your Dismemberment’ and the simply titled ‘Outro’ – and between those skin crawling lullabies all hell is let loose. Violent, caustic, beast-like vocals tear at the skin, while colossal riffs and punishing drums hammer at the skull. ‘Sanctum Of Gore’ offers titanic swathes of filth, juxtaposed with flesh-raking bursts of machinegun fire and ‘Complete Bowel Extraction’ summons visions of drowning in the detritus of the dead – a tide of entrails and organs washing over you as you choke on blood, blood and more blood. ‘Unmerciful Redemption’ is a test of endurance, with every chord hitting like a physical blow…the attack is relentless; the tempo varying but the iron fist punches never ceasing. They Rot Beneath Our Floor is grim, rotten and barbarous, a shocking incision that reveals the sickening decay that lies behind the facade of humanity.

 

Mixed and mastered by Floor Van Kuijk of Korpse, Sijjeel and Carnifloor at his infamous GLDCHN Studios, They Rot Beneath Our Floor possesses a formidable, festering power; every note and battering beat sounding raw, intimidating and dangerous. When Comatose Music unleash this perverse and pitiless beast upon the world on March 20th utter carnage will ensue. Engorgement are coming…and there’s room beneath their floorboards for you.

LIVE REVIEW: Bloodshot Dawn drop jaws as Northern DeathFest sees extreme (metal) comaradarie

GIVEN the extreme nature of the music aired at Northern DeathFest outsiders would be surprised at the smiles and camaraderie emanating from both the stage and throughout the audience. It was as if the sense of belonging amongst metal fans had become a tangible entity to an aural assault backdrop.

While the headliners were odds on to impress the seven bands performed to such an extent there was no low points, no mid-set slacking, no tailing off. Instead of which there was playing to such a high standard that by the time the final chords of the evening played it was a delirious exhaustion for all.

Openers Rupturation set the metal ball rolling at the ungodly hour of 14:30. Any cobwebs lurking in the rafters or muddy heads were shaken, battered and delighted.

Given the history behind the three-piece their set was an astounding, wonderful definition of rising, death metal nailed on.

Fresh from their success in Heat One of Northern Ireland's Metal2TheMasses Lock Horns mounted the stage with intent. Their take on progressive metal has nothing to do with standing around looking at fretboards. This is high energy in human form, with static practically electrifying the stage.

But, amidst the frenzy the playing had a panache and precision that was beautifully beguiling.

Like Lock Horns Stranglewire have an album out soon, but any future gazing was shattered as they produced death metal from unearthly dimensions. Their psychologically twisted music came dripping with hatred for the human race.

Dig behind the assault and there is something disturbing about the delivery from Stranglewire. Disturbing in a good way...

The Crawling have emerged in recent months as something of the darlings of the doom/death/misery metal scene, and deservedly so. The menace they have developed through playing far and wide invokes a sense of despair in their music - much to the delight of the audiences.

That oxymoron sums up The Crawling. Their miserable anthems are joyous to the sceptical, cynical bastard that lurks in us all, but on their playing at DeathFest was welcome.

Tighter than a shark's arse and as terrifying as facing a shark's maw Overoth know what they do and on Saturday they did it as well as ever. Knowing that they had a later afternoon set, knowing that many pints had been sunk by the audience like a death metal blunderbuss they spattered Limelight2 with shots carefully aimed to dismember.

Riffs and soloing aplenty as always, but to keep the crowd engaged was impressive. But then again they live up to what their fierce reputation as always.

With an hour's break for gear change Reprisal faced a difficult challenge but frontman Tom wasn't about to let any bugger come back complacent. A single finger to any faders these Buckinghamshire thrash bastards were here to let Belfast know they are a band here to stay.

The fine line between thrash and death was tred well and they are a band that will surely be welcomed back to the city.

As for Bloodshot Dawn...the last time they played Belfast the audience jaws dropped. This time jaws hit the floor. They were very good last time They were beyond great on January 28th.

There is an elixir that they have concocted deep in some dungeon in Portsmouth that melds ferocity and mind-altering metal melodies.

Numbers from Reanimation (Phil's review s here) were balanced with a healthy smattering of older material, but what was consistent was the interplay and balance between Josh and Morgan intricacy and the heaviness of the band in toto.

Northern Deathfest proved a couple of things -beyond the audience draw of extreme metal. Firstly the talent across the UK is astounding. And, Northern Ireland 'heavier' bands ae growing and developing at a pace that could barely be credited five years ago.

Review by Jonathan Traynor
Pictures by Darren McVeigh
Additional reporting by Zakk Traynor

ALBUM REVIEW: Sick DM aural assault from Putrefy shines dark light on twisted humanity

EXTREME music, in its purest form can be a cathartic experience, a damn good excuse to step outside the fucked up, mundane life that shrouds our lives in the servitude of being a wage slave, scanning the latest war and horror news from around the world.

Death metal holds a unique place in extreme music, its dense, lyrical interweaving of the grotesque with at times inaudible, guttural singing and intense playing lay it bare to all sorts of charges and metal snobbery.

But like a bad penny it keeps turning up; and like a predatory animal seeks out your weakest point and hammers you into weeping submission.

However, for those with a penchant for the genre it is a glorious way to reflect on the dystopian society that we are forced to live within, monitored by cameras, tracked by our online movements and ostracized for our (lack of) fashionable dress sense.

When you sit down to listen to a slab of death metal it is an escape, a humourous, yet brutal experience with purveyors of gore and glorious noise.

Northern Ireland's very own Putrefy have been delivering their brand of blackened death metal for 20 years now, and shortly their latest album will be available to an unsuspecting public.

'Knelt Before the Sarcophagus of Humanity' is a seriously sick assault on the auditory canals of the populace. It should be prescribed by doctors as it can cure all manner of ills, from depression through to diseases of the dick...if it doesn't on first listen we reckon repeated plays will, and it will soon be approved by the medical authorities as a way combat extremist thoughts, compulsive viewing of bad TV and listening to shitty boy bands.

With tracks like the opener 'Wading Through Human Blood' and 'Awakening of the Stillbord' you know that religious fundamentalists will flee from this album, when they should be embracing its gore as a cure for their affliction.

Musically the album is a bit of a return to the bands roots. That is not to say that some of the more recent death metal influences have been cast aside: instead the focus seems to have been on keeping it tight and intensity.
You could not accuse guitarists Conor and Aaron of not keeping it intense and locked down. There is barely a gnat's pubs between them as they lead from the front with a cascade of riffs, and frequent dischordantly beautiful solos. When melody rears its head it is pummeled down to emphasise the sheer weight of each track.

At the bottom end Jason's drums are more subtle than many DM acts: blast beats are not abused, but inserted when needed, and the snare is hit in an almost punk-like assault on a mod. At times, however, the cymbals don't have the necessary separation to hear whether it is a crash or ride bein played. No doubt something that will not be a problem live.

Bass on this release was played by Connor before Ross was brought into the band. It works well as a support for the riffs and drumming.

It is Connor's vocals that add more menace to an already threatening release. Inaudible because of a register that is at the ultra low frequency used by whales and US submarines to communicate with. The US fleet will be baffled when this is played live, while the whales will just chill out. Is it a coincidence that there are now more whale sightings around our shores recently?

That is not to say that the vocals are monochromatic guttural roaring. There is enough variety to keep the songs interesting.

From operatic openings to the 2013 recording of 'Pig Fucker' this album is a treat of death metal that shows why Putrefy have graced staged from the US to the Czech Republic.

Okay - there's nothing that original on 'Knelt Before the Sarcophagus of Humanity' but what is there is a prescient reminder that death metal delivered well can be redemptory experience, forcing you to actually listen to the output rather than let it wash over you.

You'll not hum along to these tracks, but by all the bloody corpses of the ill-advised wars you will find death metal played with suitable care, attention, intensity and lyrical sickness.

We're off to try to hum along to 'Smashed Down With Iron'...

Review by Jonny
 'Knelt Before the Sarcophagus of Humanity' is out this month on Sevared Records