Eviscerated
Self Titled
5.8
Another deathcore record, this one hailing from the East Bay area, Eviscerated chugs… and squeals… and screams… and grunts… and blasts... Like fellow Californians Fate, Eviscerated are a bunch of youngsters (none older than 20, I believe), and they possess a considerable amount of raw talent, but they're still mired within the cookie-cutter confines of a scene that's about as choked as a scene can get. I can save everyone some time here and say that, if you really like deathcore, you’ll probably find this to be acceptable. Otherwise, you’d be fine to go ahead and skip it.
Performed by Brad Morgan with help from bassist Nick Willbrand, the vocals are the usual gut-wrenching rumble combined with its erstwhile partner, the ear-singing screech. The riffs alternate between low chunky moments and mid-range runs, and the drums occasionally blast and sometimes just ride a kick-heavy groove… Song titles that range from the goofy-gory ("Rectal Trauma") to the goofy-kitschy ("Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD"). Does this sound familiar? Yeah? You know why? Because you’ve heard it before. For all their skill, again like Fate, Eviscerated do almost nothing to break the mold. Even lyrically and visually, with the gory themes, this record is old hat.
To be fair, I find this better than the Fate record—the production is looser and rawer, but in a good way. From a clinical listening standpoint, the disc sounds good, although I wish the snare was punchier—I wish it made more of a crack than an empty-can thud. But in all my eight or nine listens, I couldn’t tell you one song from the next, and about three songs in, my attention would always wander and I’d be off, thinking about anything else. There’s just nothing here that reaches out and grabs you from this endless sea of retread tech-ish riffs and blasts.
So there’s the catch—these guys do have some skills; they are good at what they do. They’re tight; they’ve clearly practiced their instruments and their songs. The creativity and songwriting factors are where they lose me, with every bit of this well-rehearsed carbon-copy indistinguishable from the rest of it. I don’t know exactly what Eviscerated could do to set themselves forward, but an un-established band on a small label needs something to do just that, either sheer unrelenting power (which they lack) or something that’s not so much a gimmick as a hook or a story. If none can be found, then in pursuit of the former, that undeniable metallic prowess, I recommend some more gigs and some brainstorming and some growth and some writing of stronger, stranger, and better songs.
