Years beyond our time spent daydreaming about weaponized organs whipped straight from the gut and an even longer analysis of those afflicted with a clear and incurable lust for decay now brings us to a new cascade through familiar septic tunnels which leads us to the pleasure of mutilated death under the blade of Austin, Texas-based death metal quartet CORPUS OFFAL as they present this imposing debut full-length album. Though one’d expect barbarous and erratically discharged evolution beyond the past via fresh conspiratorial spray ‘Corpus Offal‘ is in fact a next-level achieved through extensively reconfigured fare, death metal which commands with an ancient bestial hand at its most grinding furor yet brings a increasingly fully-fledged capability to its experience. This zombified second chance at living bears more than voluminously struck aplomb and dagger-twisting leads but an murderous stamina for the six living autopsies ahead. While it’ll be hard to separate this beast from whence it came I’d walked away from this album considering it spiritual ascendent rather than plainest successor.

Corpus Offal formed circa 2024 as death metal quartet Cerebral Rot announced they’d officially succumbed to… I’m guessing the move of at least one key member away from Portland ’til Austin. With guitarist/vocalist Ian Schwab (Crurifragium) and second guitarist Clyle Lindstrom (Fetid, Caustic Wound) both returning for this band it is natural (and correct) to assume a spiritual continuation of their previous group would follow. If you are not familiar with ‘Odious Descent into Decay‘ (2019) [1]and its low-brow high-rate evolution via ‘Excretion of Mortality‘ (2021) [2]and you are a fan of modern conglomerated takes on ‘old school’ death metal you’ve missed out on what signature elements the two guitarists bring into this third-level devolutionary step. Granted you’ll feel the faint pulse of ancient deathgrind, inhale the putrid atmosphere of filth-ridden death metal outliers in the era of ‘Necroticism…‘ and the bleak, hellish scrawl of classic Incantation via their first demo tape (‘Demo‘, 2024) under this name and probably hear direct analogues to ‘Excretion of Mortality‘ in preview but their Funebrarum-esque gloom carries on as a further down the road, uglier and more putrid exaggeration of their previous getup.

Guttural, grooving hard, echoing from within a vast concrete tomb the two songs from that first demo were pretty damned clear as to what expect from these new digs and the rhythm section (via Bell Witch drummer Jesse Shreibman and bassist Jason Sachs) adopted for this release… and I write that with great confidence as you’ll soon find each of those songs finds an even better (slightly extended) version over on Side B of ‘Corpus Offal‘. What I wasn’t prepared for was the duality of the listening experience in passive listening versus concerted ear-wrenching analysis wherein for some it’ll prove an groaty, pitch-shifting maul of album that dirges and blurs past via its riff-focused and gruesome growling command… and others who’re sticklers for the details will be met with a fast-sprawling and deathly unnerving skeletal beast filled with whammy-diving, pinch-harmonic dragging and overall grotesque innervation. The pair of guitarists here create an absolute spectacle of wretched death metal that shreds in wild strokes, a style of guitar playing left for dead beyond the early 90’s era of hillbilly groove metal and grunge-funk wannabes, which we might find on the first Brutality record or perhaps more fittingly Broken Hope‘s underrated ‘The Bowels of Repugnance‘.

I don’t know that I’d necessarily point to ‘Christbait‘-era Blood‘s (Germany) death grinding terror as much as I would Incantation-esque pinched and dooming strut or the weird-ass tangential feeling of Infester for what this record is in terms of its greater shape but I will say that I did not spend very long considering what (or whom) else this band sounded like at any given moment, not as often as I did with Cerebral Rot at least, while listening. The whole of the band comes alive on these songs in a way that rarely happened back in the 90’s outside of some unsteady transitions toward early brutal death in the demo-only arena and what I mean is that all performances are generally considered, different types of arrangements are pursued and a louder bass guitar tone seated next to Shreibman‘s stellarly brutal-yet-fleet drumming help to transgress between period specific death metal rhythmic craft. This hadn’t hit me all that hard until I’d waded ass-deep into “Spinous Forms of Mortal Abhorrence” after the bass guitar tone growls out, sparks a twisted solo and finally cuts the neck loose about ~5:44 minutes into the piece with its that pinched-out harmonic riff. While not unheard-of in its technique or shape it was enough of a holy shit moment to prompt better attention paid to the evil brewing, the first of many rotten skulled pure evil guitar moments on the album. I went in expecting something maybe along the lines of Undergang a la pit-stinking gore-grinding ‘old school’ death and this is something even more atmospheric, sprawling and sinister out the gates.

The next several pieces on the album were essential for induction, each of them sporting quick-changing grooves or some manner of diabolic certainty that planted each riff in mind. “Essence of Dissolution” in particular carries a funkier step and horrified watery growls straight outta “Where the Slime Live” amidst fuming guitar solos readily winging across the face within a minute or two. The grinding distorted bass driven riff that closes the song~4:47 minutes births from the complete death of the song’s momentum as the song pauses and kicks into a swinging groove that’d have fit on a ‘Roots‘ inspired record from the late 90’s just as well as an Oppressor record. The voice modulation, the barbed-wire whipping leads, and the brutal crank of this song all do well to characterize the experience without outright referencing the obvious off-brand ‘old school’ shit we’ve all heard at this point; I could go on track-by-track here praising at least one nutso moment from each song but the important thing to suggest here is that ‘Corpus Offal‘ doesn’t waste your time in the sense that they’ve brought something worthy to every song on here (the title track smokes in particular) and only cut away from the action for one minute so the intro (“Purging Creation”) can remind us we’re not just playing with sheep guts but witnessing a hateful autopsy, floor to ceiling murderous carnage.

From there the two pieces from the 2024 demo follow in reverse order starting with the rolling tremolo-picked riffs and harmonically flung terror of “Gorging Gastric Decedent” which once again recalls just how dark Cerebral Rot had turned toward their endpoint alongside the gloomier crawling tension of “Ripened Psychosis”, a song which delivers on this building sense that Corpus Offal aren’t only fixated on the riff that is right in front of their faces but that they’ve some interest in modulating the pacing, song types, different realms of death metal that’d line up with their black blood dripping morbid death metal sound. As it turns out their whole deal is even more effective within its slower-paced, doomed exaggerations as the last twenty minutes of this ~50 minute record burn through its two longest pieces. “Secreted Effluence (Spilling)” is overkill to be sure but not the type I’d end up complaining about since we’ve gotten some variety in tow even as the album reaches its heinous endpoint; The full listen is imposing but (again) flows past quicker than it’d seem thanks to never really dropping the ball in terms of keeping ‘Corpus Offal‘ molten and moving, never conveying anxious hot-potato trade in ideas so much as finding the way through via one menacing strike after another.

The intelligent killer, not the opportunistic type but a true torturer. — Gilded by surprisingly sophisticate carnal art by Karina Monzon and given a surprisingly plain typeface logo ‘Corpus Offal‘ is presented as something new, different than the ‘new old school’ trappings delivered by their previous band and in combination this both ties the acts together and presents something different to catch the eye of gore-hungry hopefuls onlooking. Corpus Offal haven’t just curated something incensed beyond the familiar here but put the work where it counts most, the details that the death metal inclined ear obsesses over in times of quietude (the lead guitar work is insane stuff, esp. for the here and now.) Granted, the tendencies of these musicians are both elevated by the rhythm section anew but also restoked into polarizing affectation, specifically the scuffed side of their vocal work and the use of pitch-shifting or similar effects which speak to ‘old school’ goregrind and brutal death ideation that not all folks can/will take seriously. Since I found so much of my obsession amplified by chasing down obscure death metal demo tapes decades ago this is the sort of extra personage and tip to the auld underground that piques my interest and characterizes the band further. If you think along similar lines I see no reason why this self-titled debut won’t strike your skull has hard as it has mine. Easily one of the most heated acts of mayhemic aggression worth hearing thus far in 2025. A very high recommendation.

---