Review of Bile - Camp Blood

Quite simply put, Holland’s Bile (consisting of current and former Mangled and Inhume members) is what Mortician would sound like if they were.......well, good; ultra down tuned distorted guitars, pitch shifted vocals from hell, lots of horror movie samples (the album is based on the Friday the 13th series) and mid paced rumbling riffage laced with a few incoherent blast beats. Pretty simple stuff, but effective.

I’m not going to bore you with clever prose or flowery alliteration, this album is pure death metal, more befitting a violent blood spewing assault rather than a cleverly written review; it’s mindlessly simplistic and almost comically overly guttural, but somehow, like the album’s thematic companion, it works with a sort of B-movie satisfaction.

Opener “Camp Blood” is pretty much the template for the rest of the album; sludgy as fuck mid-paced groove littered with a few grindcore blast beats and Reek of Purefaction era vocals. The next twelve tracks pretty much follow suite but may switch the fast/slow dynamic around once in while (“Boot Cracked Cranium”, “Bludgeoned and Beaten”, “Deranged Facial Stabbing”) or just deliver a quick sampling of each (i.e. “Widespread Bloodshed”, “Bled Dry”-fast, “Resurrected”-slow). There’s little deviation from the blood splattering formula, so the album doesn’t have much staying power especially considering the production that is a little hard to listen to for long periods of time. Speaking of the production, the guitars and bass are ridiculously down tuned, but for some reason the drums don’t quite match, especially the wimpy snare drum.

I’ll admit, the slow rumbling sections, even with the weak snare, have a pretty satisfying chug to them; “Axe Wielding Killer”, the oozing “Death Curse”, “Dredging the Lake” all deliver thick, gnarly grooves within their burping, bludgeoning assault. “The Final Chapter” is a sample laden instrumental that actually works pretty well also. That being said, after reviewing this album, I’m not sure I’ll come back to it often as it's not a purely entertaining or challenging listen, much like its movie counterpart; its good for a quick, brainless few moments of mindless entertainment as opposed to watching Kirasawa or something. You have to be in the mood for something this simplistically violent and to be honest, uncreative.

Still, if you’re the sort of misanthropic fan of Mortician, Jungle Rot, Six Feet Under or Torture Killer, Bile should give you a few good minutes of psychotic transference to stop you hacking local campers to pieces.

Release Details

Bile

Camp Blood

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