Sectioned
Purulent Reality
7.7
Sectioned is the death metal side project of some of the guys in Dimentianon, Or maybe Dimentianon is the black / death side project of some of the guys in Sectioned, Either way, I’d bet that you’re likely not wickedly familiar with either act, so it’s a bit of a moot point.
Sectioned is out-and-out vintage-styled death metal, paying homage to the masters of yesteryear, mostly of the Floridian variety but with touches of the Scandinavian school for good measure. (Think Morbid Angel, Massacre, with a hint of Dismember, et al.) So yes, it’s a retread, but Sectioned’s take on 1992 feels like neither a slavish devotion nor a complete rewrite. Purulent Reality breaks no new ground, but it does so without sounding redundant, and considering the amount of bands looking backwards these days, that’s a notable distinction.
As mentioned, most of Purulent Reality follows a Floridian blueprint—there are no nods to overt technicality, no atonal New York flourishes or breakdown-heavy beatdowns. This is the blasting and grooving early type of death metal, darker than the thrash upon which it's built--more evil, heavier, rawer and rougher, grittier and growling. From the Scandinavian scene, Sectioned doesn’t appropriate the sickly sweet buzzsaw tone, a fact that I both lament and praise, but instead they incorporate the fleeting and occasional sense of menacing melody that crops up in the later work of bands like Dismember.
These tracks mostly lumber in a bulldozer gait, occasionally reaching speedier tempos, but always swinging and pounding at whatever speed, taut and crackling with undeniable headbangability, The riffs aren’t busy—they’re generally all the more destructive in their simplicity, a skill akin to Bolt Thrower’s basic-but-never-boring ball-crushing approach. The true star of the show are the guitar leads, infusing Sectioned’s brute swagger with skillful dashes of melody and arpeggiated fury. One somewhat-surprising production point: the bass guitar is audible, at times even prominent, with a clear, crisp tone that infuses tunes like "My Love Of Decay" with a tinge of Overkill’s pinging low-end, The only minor complaint I have is that Reality’s tunes are all lengthy, and at times as the record spins, I feel like Sectioned should and could make things a bit more concise, perhaps cutting some repetitions and ideas down to add room for more ideas and less repetitions of ideas and ideas of repetitions.
Regardless, unabashed lover of well-done classic death that I am and will forever be, there will always be room in my collection for records such as this one. My one minor critique aside, to Sectioned, I say this: well done, gents—an unexpected surprise from a previously unheard band. Looking forward to the next one and beyond.
