I have no idea what’s going on with Spanish label Xtreem Music. 2014 seems to be a highlight in many aspects, and those aspects are tens of superb releases by great bands, which I will come back to immediately. First a very limited history. David ‘Dave Rotten’ Sánchez González, whom you might know from notorious acts such as Christ Denied, Avulsed, Yskelgroth, Putrevore etc. started the legendary (at least in my opinion, but since I am an old fan…) Drowned Productions-label in 1990. Some names, just for fun: Avulsed evidently, Rottrevore, Purtenance, Golgotha, Human Waste and even Finnish Kult-act Demigod… Melancholy, but I used to be in contact with this guy in order to distribute some of his stuff (especially demo-tapes) during the very early nineties. In very early 1994, Drowned Productions were put to rest, but very soon after David started a new label, Repulse Records, which was, to my opinion, one of the most influential labels (at least from Spain, yet with an international roster) during the second half of the nineties. Once again some names: Adramelech, Rotten Sound, Centinex, Demilich, Intestine Baalism and many more. Then, after some relative inactivity, David re-baptised Repulse into Xtreem Music, great as from the early years (Abaddon Incarnate, Human Mincer, Zubrowska, Disgorge etc.), and grown up unto one of the most important (Death) Metal labels nowadays. As from 2010/2011, Xtreem seem to have become bigger than many former ‘majors’ (the commercial ‘big ones’ excepted, but who cares about those?), and 2014 isn’t but their highlight! Once again I need to mention the professional and dedicated activities of Transcending Obscurity’s Kunal Choksi too, for this guy is spreading the words of Death and Despair too… Anyway, 2014 and Xtreem Music, and reviews I did for them (or that will be online very soon): Wrong, Stormvold, Transcëndental, Avulsed, Emeth, Dying Out Flame, Coffinborn, Azooma, and more, many more… Check out this (in mean time legendary? ;-) site…
Quite some intro, I know, but they deserve the honour…
Another sublime signing is this one: Death Vomit, a young Chilean act that surprised the Underworlds a lot with their contribution on a split with another fabulous act from Chile, Uttertomb, i.e. last year’s Coagulation Of The Pest. What this trio brings with Gutted By Horrors is nothing else but a tribute the Eighties scene. This is the kind of Black / Death Metal that made undersigned, and many more, fall in love with Meta666l. It is a purest definition of the Eighties style, nothing more, but certainly nothing less either – at all! It goes for the sound as well: rough, unpolished, primal, yet grotesque in a certain sense. The few distinctive intermezzos do prove this statement. Everything shows these guys’ passion for the Old Skool Tradition, i.e. everything that sounds as toxic and sulphuric as Profanatica, Carnage, Morgoth, Autopsy, Goatlord, Treblinka, Necrovore, Demoncy, Utumno or Purtenance. It’s morbid and brutal, malicious and dark, spawning a tasty graveyard-stench; something we all like to smell, of course. Despite the primal performance (but of course this is the only way to express this kind of Abyssal Sonics) and the minimalism of the tracks, there is no boredom whatsoever. And everything that is needful to consider this material as ‘glorious’ is present: the deep grunts, the ultra-heavy rhythm section, the variation in tempo (with an accent of speed-up melodies), the few barb-wired solos, and so on. And the lack of originality… No, I’m even not gonna finish this. F*ck originality!
It’s simple: if you consider yourself a fan of honest and pure Blackened / Thrashing Old School Death Metal etc…