“You claim the victim.”
Supergroups within the death metal scene are often few and far between. At the same time, many may form now and again, but few actually end up releasing music due to the hectic schedules of the members involved and external commitments. So when one actually ends up releasing music, it’s almost certainly primed to be a sight to behold, and that is the case with Ablation, which sees Sanguisuggabogg vocalist Devin Swank and drummer Eric Morotti joining forces with Suffocation bassist Eric Boyer and Dehumanized guitarist Rich Nagasawa to release a savage debut EP in Lethal Abuse.
Lethal Abuse sees the supergroup taking the fast-paced assault of Suffocation, the technical wizardry of Dehumanized, and the slow-churning beatdowns of Sanguisuggabogg all melded into a cohesive and engaging display of macabre that often leaves the listener wondering what exciting turn will come next throughout the EP’s brisk seventeen-minute runtime.
After a brief clip from Tom Cruise’s Tropic Thunder tirade, the titular track begins with a particularly groovy set of chunky riffs that not only show off the engaging songwriting that only a group like Ablation have, but also complements the more classic death metal vocal style that Swank uses throughout so succinctly that even fans of his more slam-centric style from Sanguisuggabogg will no doubt be thoroughly impressed by it. Speaking of slam, we are then treated to the song “Victim Kink”, which contrasts the more fast-paced style of “Lethal Abuse” with a more deliberately paced song that displays just how massive and surprisingly modern the EP’s early 90s death metal sound truly is. “Victim Kink” even ends on a feature from Mullen, which sees him bringing back the growls from the legendary band’s album Effigy of the Forgotten to drive home Ablation’s intentions of total sonic eviceration. Whereas the previous two songs focused on groove-centric decimation and mid-tempo brutality, “Sporadic Slaughtering”, respectively, speeds things up to a level that rivals even the fastest songs from bassist Boyer, while still retaining the level of concise nuance that listeners will have already come to expect from Ablation.
This far into the EP, listeners might think that Ablation have run out of tricks, which in reality, couldn’t be further from the truth. “Indecorous Disembodiment” exhibits the band’s technical prowess with a sonic assault of riffs that changes from a faster tempo to a slower one at the drop of a hat throughout the song’s three-minute beatdown without any awkward transitions. This technical proficiency continues to shine throughout the following track, “Eradicating the Feebleminded”; however, this time, listeners are treated to another crushing feature courtesy of Mullen to drive home the precise assault of the blisteringly paced track. Rounding out the EP’s nonstop assault, we have the closing track “Immersed in Carrion”, which ends the back half of Lethal Abuse‘s relentless assault with a song quick and technical enough that even fans of Dying Fetus will no doubt glean with envy.
Overall, Lethal Abuse is one of the most bone-crushing EPs that has come from any death metal band in quite a while. Lethal Abuse takes the many different styles of its members’ primary bands and melds them into an incredibly cohesive and engaging project that will have you begging for more from the (hopefully) soon-to-be legendary super group.
