I shuddered when I found out I’d been sent a promo of the new Avulsed album. This is the same band who, although having recorded only one full length album have already released a best of compilation, even though the band, in their seven year history prior to the release of Stabwound Orgasm, had recorded and released less than 25 songs. Unfortunately for Avulsed, their best material released to date was an album of techno remixes of Eminence In Putrescence, their sole full length prior to this. Needless to say, I was looking forward to listening to this CD about as much as I would be if I were going to have open surgery with no anesthetic while having an angry pack of rabid porcupines set loose in my colon. I must admit, however, that the band has improved since 1996’s Eminence In Putrescence, but that still doesn’t necessarily make Avulsed a great band. The music itself is actually pretty decent, it’s not the most complex stuff ever written but Juancar, Cabra and Tana are able to chug along with some pretty decent riffs incorporating the melodic touches of many European death metal bands along with some of the heaviness displayed in American death metal. Unfortunately it seems as though the band have ‘borrowed’ far too much from their label mates, Jesus Martyr, being the most notable, which is strange considering Repulse just dropped them. The vocals of Repulse Records main man Dave Rotten are similar to those of the low vocals of Depresy front man Drahos Gabris, as they are rather gurgly. Unfortunately, Dave seems to have a thing for using an echo effect for his vocals, which I find to be incredibly annoying. Dave also sticks to one single style, which is rather boring. This vocal style may work for his Mortician-worship band Christ Denied, but the over processed vocals flop for the music of Avulsed. As far as the drumming is concerned, I don’t know where they found Furni, but it sounds like he just got his first drum kit second hand last weekend at a garage sale. These are by far the most pathetic drum patterns I’ve heard, actually, it’s a tie with Greg Gall of Six Feet Under. The band would have been better off just using a drum machine, at least then they may be able to program it to do more than one single beat throughout the entire album. The label has tried to make a big deal about the cover artwork. Rather than going with gore Avulsed decided upon a more Cradle Of Filth-looking cover with a couple of pictures of nude women, digitally altered. It just happens to be some of the worst digital manipulation I have seen in a long time. I could teach a hyper three legged monkey with an IQ less than my shoe size how to do better digital manipulation than this. On the whole Avulsed are a mildly entertaining band, but most likely wouldn’t have gotten a record contract if it weren’t for their vocalist owning the label they’re signed to. There is some decent stuff on this release, but nothing very memorable. This is just yet another average release from an average band. Written By: Teufel