Corpsefucking Art “Tomatized”
Tomatized will be released October 4th on Comatose Music
After six long years, Italy’s Corpsefucking Art are back with their new album Tomatized. Paying a loving homage to the horror tropes the band has loved and paid tribute to, the album takes themes of violence, gore, aliens and tomatoes into a new level of brutality and violence with their sixth album. Creating a unique combination of slam heavy riffs, gurgling and throaty bass, and blasting but groovy drums. After such a long gap since the band’s last album, 2018’s Splatterphobia, have these gory titans delivered a punishing and heavy album? Or should we be ready to get the rotten tomatoes ready?
The title track opens the album. With a building, rising ticking noise amidst squishy, gory noises and screams echoing behind it. Andrea Corpse & Mario Di Giambattista’s guitars kick the song off exactly at the minute mark. Vocalist Frank Moretti delivers a deep, guttural gurgle amidst the chugging guitars that are soaked in slam brutality. John De Bello furiously pounds the double bass with machine-gun like precision. After the halfway mark, it turns into a chug heavy and heavy brutal breakdown, before forming a groove into complex blast beats and chugs. An high-energy, up-tempo close ends the track as the start of a brutal record ahead. On “Hell of The Living Dead”, immediately the band begins going for the throat violently with aggressive drumming and intermittent chugs and tremolo. The song has a goregrind feel to the track. Delivering that Exhumed/Impaled vibe in the play style. Marco De Ritis’ bass playing adds that deep, gurgling weight to the bouncy but chuggy guitars at the halfway mark. De Bello again blasts away as the guitar playing speeds up to try to match the intensity. De Ritis’ bass opens up “Blood Kitchen Garden”. Creating a bouncy, headbob along groove with the guitars. Before mutating into another gory, brutal death metal riff/breakdown section. While also continuing that groovy, almost catchy bounce to it along with it. De Ritis’ bass lead really takes charge after the halfway mark, especially in between verse breaks near the three quarter mark. That bouncy drum pattern and simple guitar strumming opens up “Alien vs. Tomator”. Continuing the distorted strumming as the drum pattern switches between a faster tempo, into straight blast beating as the guitars pick up speed into the chorus. I love the high intensity playing on the song, before switching back up to more groove-heavy, breakdown-like sections that are popular in goregrind and slam.
“A Nightmare on Tomator Street” opens with the genre-trope of movie clips. With Freddy Krueger opening the song, into a super fast drum section of blast beats and double bass. Moretti’s vocals have way more grit and distortion on them, mixed with the doom/slam guitar playing. Corpse & Di Giambattista are just riff-machines in creating that brutality of chugs, tremolo and bouncy strums throughout the song. Very low and slow, brutal death metal akin to Brodequin. This was my favorite track on the album. “The Book of The Dead” opens with ride cymbal hits and a deep, down-tuned chug with light drum fills. Before the song turns into one long, slow headbang of an opening riff. With so much distorted bass underneath the riff, it just sounds so nasty. Instantly gives you that stank-face as you hear it evolve. The song is just three solid minutes of slam-heavy chugs and heavily distorted bass, with random moments of pace changing and almost punk-like drumming. “Dead Sushi”, after its movie sample, opens with pummeling drumming and aggressive guitars. With the band again just going for the jugular in the playing. Moretti’s vocals as deep and guttural, but almost buried in the utter heaviness of the guitars in the mix. Fast, unrelenting and brutal, until the three quarters mark. Where the song turns into a true, slam style breakdown before going for the throat one last time with furious drumming and chugging guitars by Corpse & Di Giambattista. The bouncy, headbang along feeling returns in the opening of “Phantasm”. De Bello is again a beast behind the kit, just destroying every piece of his kit, while also slowing down to add a groove to the brutality the rest of the band delivers. Sometimes almost sounding computer programmed in how heavy and fast the drums are. Brutal, simple guitars add to the heaviness and sonic onslaught of the track. Especially when De Bello turns it up in his playing intensity. The album closes with the track “Escape From Alpha City”. Instantly opening with a chugging, heavily distorted and headbang along riff. De Bello has little flurries of speed, interspersed among the simple drumming at some points. Corpse & Di Giambattista instantly hit the ground running with intense, high-octane playing you’d almost hear on a Nile record. With a very, atmospheric section around the halfway mark, it mixes up the slam formula. Letting Moretti stand out on vocals, before the sonic brutality comes roaring back with brutal drumming and chugging guitars hit like a ton of bricks. Coming back again for one more rise near the three quarters mark, before the song ends with a movie sample.
Corpsefucking Art delivered a heavy and punishing tribute to gore with Tomatized. Hitting all the trademarks of the brutal/slam death metal genre. Adding those characteristics of heavy, chugging, down-tuned guitars that somehow add that bouncing effect with the almost polka-like drums. Switching into impressively fast drumming that turns on a dime from polka, to punk, to death metal in one song. Is this the band’s best record? In my opinion, I still love their first record Splatter Deluxe more than the new album. But, this is a strong record and is maybe a close number two in my opinion. The experimentation of filling the space on the closing track was a nice touch. Helping break up the formula of the band’s sound throughout the entire album. A true, slam gem that will scratch all of those itches you want in slam and brutal death metal. I ask you please don’t pelt the band with tomatoes if you see them live.
SCORE: 4 / 5
