Those of you that followed my previous blog should be well aware of my love for brutal death metal and slam. Given that I don’t get nearly enough good promos of this stuff, I like to trawl the web every so often in search of all things gory, gross and mosh-worthy. It was during a recent plunge through the depths of that wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Bandcamp that I came across the slamming sensation known as Rendered Helpless.
Hailing from Christchurch, New Zealand (is there a burgeoning slam scene in NZ that I’m unaware of?), Rendered Helpless is a one-man slam machine helmed by mastermind Alex Paul. Herr Paul self-released his debut full length Unstoppable Parasites at the tail end of January, and it’s no exaggeration when I say that this solitary affair not only sounds better, but is better composed and played than what most full-band slam outfits who put out albums on well known labels are able muster.
Unstoppable Parasites is pure, knuckle-dragging slam in the vein of acts such as Traumatomy, Gorevent and Vulvectomy that does one hell of a job of tickling the living shit out of the lizard brain. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel by any means, but Paul’s love for the genre shines through with every down-tuned, plodding beatdown he unleashes on tracks such as “Chaotic Defilement” and “Torturous Draining of Bodily Fluids.” It is evident that he put a great deal of effort into crafting a slam album that does exactly what it’s supposed to do; that is to say it sounds and feels like someone attempting to cave in your skull with a sledgehammer in slow motion.
The production on Unstoppable Parasites is a testament to what musicians can accomplish outside the world of the “professional” recording world. The album sounds killer; heavy and claustrophobic but with just enough room in the mix to allow all the instruments to be heard. Drums are of the programmed variety, but this in no way hinders the album and although they never reach the hyper-blasting velocities of Mortician (they’re much closer to the aforementioned Vulvectomy, tempo and tone-wise), they lend the brutality on display a similarly cold, mechanized vibe. The whole thing is topped with guitar distortion that’s thick as a brick and vocals that sound like a someone gargling a cocktail of battery acid and raw sewage.
Hard as it may be to believe, the best slamming brutal death metal album of 2016 so far came not from Russia, Japan or the good ol’ USA and was not released on a well known label like Sevared or Comatose. It was quietly uploaded to Bandcamp by a lone musician with an obvious dedication to and reverence for the genre. More like this, please.
https://renderedhelpless.bandcamp.com/
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While I was doing research for this review I stumbled onto the announcement that Rendered Helpless has signed with Inherited Suffering Records for a CD release and merch. The album is still available digitally on Bandcamp and physical copies are up for pre-order at the label’s website.
THKD 