Mortiferous Scorn
The Perfect Impurity
6.8
Looks like a corpse-scraper of a demo. More specifically, gnarly 1988 tombstone-grinding local band demo-cassette death metal. The kind of "gnarly" that would have set off a hot tape-trading frenzy. But the reality of this, is that the sounds that come forth are far removed from crypt-keeping.
But not completely. Death metal? Affirmative. Does it choke on worms? Bang on coffins from the inside? No, and no. It's of the more clean and streamlined sort as opposed to the kind of deathly-death (like say Autopsy) that their decrepit logo in Satan-script would suggest, albeit it is spiritual in a Cannibal Corpse sense (lyrical content, plus a less-charred Barnes vocal approach), but with the driving pulse and mechanics of something more accessible, like Sepultura or Prong (and at times Red Harvest come to mind, specifically Internal Punishment Programs). I feel as if sole member, Alexander Oden, may have sabotaged his own attempt at nausea and savagery by simply being focused and skilled. The rhythm guitar work here couldn't be much more in the pocket, and ditto for the thin bass guitar (random bass side note: the bass guitar intros to both "Ashes" and "Chaotic Emptiness" scarily mimic the intro to Megadeth's "Five Magics", I couldn't get away from it), which is the closest thing to a sense of warmth you'll get during this cold recording session, for the blood has been vamped out by the drum machine. I obviously have my issues with cheap, synthetic drum sounds (the tom-fill during the intro to "Ashes" is heartbreaking), and it is true that this album should absolutely be re-recorded with acoustic drums, because then it would truly slay, but I have to say that this is an admirable attempt at human-arm replacement; a well mapped out presentation. This two-bit accompaniment to the gear-shifting, precise attack of clever and straight-ahead riffing gives The Perfect Impurity that "industro-metal" feel, but with heavy heavy emphasis on the "metal". It is key that you understand that emphasis.
I don't want you leaving here thinking that this is Front Line Assembly or something; Mortiferous Scorn will whip you into a frenzy that does not involve actual whips. Just real hair. Alot of it. Being thrown vertically.
