Parricide
Ill-Treat
Mercenary / WWIII
Yay, there’s Polish death metal in my mailbox! And from some of the originators of this very scary, geographically defined scene, no less. Yet, while Parricide have been at it since 1990, steadfastly performing live on the death circuit and releasing a heap of demo tape, this is really only their second official album (released in Poland three years back, and now made available in the US through the good evil people over at World War III Records). The too-straightforward version of Cannibal Corpse’s “Hammer Smashed Face” included here betrays their gore metal roots, but elsewhere Parricide is far too preoccupied with grunting their way through breakneck blastbeat anthems to bother much with blood and violent castrations, and the equally abrasive Disgorge is a far more evident reference point on most of this album.
Technically impeccable and extremely brutal performances are the order of the day, but on portions of the disc, Parricide lack the pure grimness any self-respecting death metal band should have. The songs on Ill-Treat are presented in the order in which they were written, and there does seem to be a system to such an initially ludicrous idea: the album gets more extreme and brutally grinding as it goes along, and so, ending with a short series of schizo aggro-death anthems and bludgeoned, throbbing riffs, Parricide eventually gets their point across. Not an entirely convincing affair, but more than good enough to warrant the attention of extreme death metallers everywhere.
World War 3 Records: http://www.ww3music.com/
