Review of Jungle Rot - Darkness Foretold

Crash Music puzzles me yet again. While they’ve finally cleaned up their roster a little bit and it no longer features any cringe-inducing bands (well, except Flotsam and Jetsam), the label still goes out and pulls this kinda shit. Signing the Neanderthal death metal institution that is Jungle Rot might not be a bad move, perhaps, but I can scarcely imagine enough fans still in search of this early EP to justify a re-release. This said, Darkness Foretold is likely identical in sound to the upcoming War Zone release from these Midwestern recidivists, so those looking for a quick’n’dirty introduction wouldn’t be remiss in giving this a shot.

That said, I’m not entirely sure why they would. I’ve always thought of Jungle Rot as Six Feet Under’s comparatively respectable equivalent. Their blastbeat-free, gurgle-free, shredding-free, progression-free, complexity-free, distinctive-feature-free, thought-free take on thrash-tinged death metal has changed very little since their 1995 debut, so if you’re familiar with any other Jungle Rot release then you know what you’re in for here. While this shit doesn’t reach the same degree of offensive stupidity as Barnes and company can deliver, it is very literally without frills of any sort. There are up-tempo thrashy sections, there’s pounding chunk-laden groove, and there’s an occasional warbly old-school solo. Nothing else. Darkness Foretold features four tracks of this extremely blunt slamming and three live cuts which are nearly indistinguishable in terms of sound quality and songwriting.

People refer regularly refer to ‘meat and potatoes’ in metal reviews (myself included), but Jungle Rot is less meat and potatoes than, well, just the fucking potato. It’s plain, it’s extremely simple, and it’ll likely bore the fuck out of you after long periods of exposure, but it’s got a certain homey appeal all the same. Darkness Foretold satisfies on a very thinking-with-the-brain-stem level that my usual high handed fare can’t quite reach, and for that I must afford these evolutionary throwbacks some grudging respect. That said, I won’t be listening to this every day…or every three months, for that matter.

Release Details

Jungle Rot

Darkness Foretold

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