Album Review: Embryectomy – Vitriolic Baptism (Unique Leader Records)

Beatdown guttural slam band Embryectomy will release their full-length album, ‘Vitriolic Baptism’ on October 23rd via Unique Leader Records.

It takes a certain kind of person to find music like this appealing, so welcome to you. Embryectomy are back and with them comes nine tracks of the most unpleasant, ugly, and intense slamming brutal death metal heard this year. Filled to the brim with thick and chuggy riffs and vitriolic breakdowns, delivered with a bit of tongue in cheek humour, courtesy of varied samples.

One of which has had me scratching my head ever since I heard it. It makes up the first part of Progeny Shredder and is like a cross between a piece from Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy and a piece from the strategy game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. I’ve gone through all the soundtracks, films and games, and even tried using Shazam, but nothing. It’s so familiar and it’s driving me mad, but maybe that’s the point? As with the haunting declaration that we’re all going to die tonight, the chugging riffs hit and Embryectomy unleash a choking wave of heaviness that hits with immense force.

That’s an instrumental, whereas Ecumenical Lobotomy introduces gurgling, guttural, and garish vocals. It, and everything else on the album, takes a bludgeoning approach to heaviness, sometimes with a touch of mania, but almost always measured and purposeful. That focus gives us brutalising efforts likes Vitriolic Baptism, Chainsaw Symphysiotomy, and Newborn Martyrdom. The latter of which features Tom from Epicardiectomy.

There’s very little in the way of variety here, but that’s to be expected as Embryectomy deal in the extreme and when you’re this skilled at slamming brutal death metal, why change a winning formula? It’s carnage, horrible and harsh, with Cranioclastic Infanticide, and even though Psychoneurotic Hecatomb starts off with an old-school Family Guy sample, it’s a slow, gurn-inducing showcase of heavy force that has a crushing breakdown.

Finally, if you’ve managed to make it this far without your brain leaking out of your ears, Sanctimonious Episcopicide and Carbonized Genesis will finish the job. Aural abuse that any fan of slamming death should enjoy. Embryectomy are one of the best to do it.

Embryectomy – Vitriolic Baptism Track Listing:

1. Progeny Shredder
2. Ecumenical Lobotomy
3. Vitriolic Baptism
4. Chainsaw Symphysiotomy
5. Newborn Martyrdom (feat. Tom from Epicardiectomy)
6. Cranioclastic Infanticide
7. Psychoneurotic Hecatomb
8. Sanctimonious Episcopicide
9. Carbonized Genesis

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