By: Anders

Posted: Nov 21, 2005

This, the best album Finnish Rotten Sound so far has made, its initial release in 2002 on the now defunct Necropolis Records imprint DeathVomit Records in America and Century Media, which bought or at least distributed DeathVomit in Europe back then, should have meant the breakthrough for the band. Though Necropolis closed not far after releasing the album, and I guess it was only printed in a limited amount, due to never getting repressed, before now, by Relapse Records. The artwork and the tracks are the same, and it contains the 3 bonus live video the European version also did back then.

Rotten Sound is the proud exponent of high-fuelled death/grind. The band is writing the music in the fast lane, and it contains very much aggression. Blast beat upon blast beat by the extremely talented Kai Hahto, while the drumming is faster than the most, he is still able to pull off amazing breaks, pace shifts and small details, a joy for people who likes killer, yet brutal drum work. The guitar work is blistering as well, aggressive riffs, brutal and straight to the point, cutting edge and raw as hell, with a killer raw guitar tone containing a lot of nerve. The vocals are great as well, a deep screamed growl, together with the more normal screamed grindcore vocals at times. And on top of it all Mieszko Talarczyk (RIP) delivers guest vocals on a track, lead guitar on another, has made both the intro and outro and recorded and produced the whole deal, a very well done job. The sound is heavy with a lot of punch, a really slaying output.

The 14 tracks on this album is some of the best death/grind ever written, on top of my head, only Terrorizer has done an album better than this, within this genre. This is though much more grindcore than death metal, but the death metal influences can't be denied, hence the death/grind label. This is an album you for sure won't miss out on, especially now when it is available again.

Rating: 8½/10

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