I used to be a devoted Death Metal fan at the end of the Eighties and during the Nineties. However, so many new bands showed up, and the better part was (and still is) crap! Okay, the very same goes for Black Metal, but the average level is, to my opinion, still much higher when talking about the latter. Within the Death Metal scene, so many fake stuff appeared, and that’s why I am quite sceptic when getting introduced to a new band.
Such a new entity is Noose Rot. Yet then I saw that the members were, or still are, in bands like Skeletonwitch, Gatecreeper, Veil Of Maya, Wolvhammer or Boson. It made me less anxious to start a first listening session. This power trio, being ‘Metal’ Matt Arabollo (drums), Adam Clemans (grunts) and Jim Adolphson (all strings), entered a professional studio, assisted by Dan Jensen (Jim’s colleague in Boson), to record some newly written material. Four tracks, eventually, were chosen to appear on Noose Rot’s debut, called The Creeping Unknown, which got released on tape and vinyl (12”, double-sided) earlier this year via Me Saco Un Ojo Records (from the United Kingdom) and Californian label Sentient Ruin Laboratories. Oh yes, the great cover artwork was done by Justin Stubbs, the guy behind projects like Vomitchurch or Hills Of Sefiroth, and involved with e.g. Encoffination, Rituaal (I do look forward, so intensively, to their next effort!) or Father Befouled. As visual artist, he did create lay-out and artwork for a thousand bands before, like Wombbath, Blasphemophager, Faustcoven, Morbosidad or Megascavenger, amongst his own outfits, and tens of others.
Noose Rot is such band that crawls back to the roots of the most nasty, putrefied pits of the Underground – the filthiest Old School glory days indeed! For only seventeen minutes (a pity!), the listener will undergo a tsunami of massive brain-terror and eardrum-sadism. It is melodic for sure, yet oh so harsh and heavy. Supported by a colossal, rabid mammoth-like rhythm section, the foreground spits a sonic definition of graveyard scenes; it’s like watching a suffocating horror movie with an empty stomach. No, seriously, these four pieces are (de)composed of low-tuned, rattling bass lines, raw rhythm guitars, monolithic drum walls (even within the slowest parts), addictive leads, and such frenzy, venomous growls and ultra-deep, acid grunts. Structure-wise, there is a fine equilibrium and variation in tempo. The better part is quite slow, yet at least as intense as the several hostile eruptions.
Even though this recording was released earlier this year, it has been a long time that I did experience such attractive Old School monument. This is a morbid tribute to bands like Putrid, Autopsy, early Entombed / Nihilist, Incantation, Asphyx, Delirium, Grave, Rippikoulu, Repugnant and Disembowelment, or ‘newer’ acts like Ancient Crypts, Grave Miasma, Spectral Voice, Cruciamentum, Temple Of Void, Dead Congregation, Necros Christos, Dominus Xul / Nar Mattaru or Vastum. Isn’t that a sweet thing to say?!... I have no idea whether the trio is currently working on a successor, but I hope they do. Shamelessly I dare to say that The Creeping Unknown is one of the best Death Metal recordings in years!