200 Stab Wounds
Manic Manual Procedures
Metal Blade Records
Straight off, what an intro! Church bells, ominous plucking, and we’re off into a full-on mosh fest! Lead single ‘Hands Of Eternity’ is just the choppy death fest we wanted, and from the get-go everything that was promised was delivered within four minutes and forty-four seconds. The bass tone is obscene, which is fantastic since poor old bass players are often an afterthought (isn’t that right, Jason). ‘Gross Abuse’ proves that the opener was no fluke with a churning onslaught of knuckle-dragging perfection. Just like that, we’re into the title track with no time for breath aside from a well-placed ride cymbal, “ting!” and it’s into a pure frenzy of riffs and blasting, a hyper-speed 20-second solo dive-bombs out of view, and it’s white knuckles all the way. ‘Release The Stench’ takes me back to my days in the NHS; the less said about that, the better. It was never this much fun, though, and that’s what this album is, fun, lean, mean and utterly exhilarating. ‘Led To The Chamber / Liquified’ employs 200 Stab Wounds’ knack for gut-churning sound effects, all the more brutal since your imagination makes the scenario. ‘Ride The Flatline’ (featuring Jami Morgan and Code Orange) is pure gnarly twin vocal devastation, a case of a guest vocal not being a token gesture and being truly special, dripping in spite and fury. It’s not over already, is it!? ‘Parricide’ is the finale to clean up the bodies and leave in a blaze of feedback; no one will ever know the massacre that just happened here.
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Review By George Miller