At the very end of 2011, string master Will Peplinski started the outfit Malignant Abomination with a friend, but that didn’t last that long at all. Will continued, but since Malignant Abomination was a solo-outfit now, he changed the moniker into Hypoxic. Then he joined forces with Devin Alford (vocals and drums), and under the Swine Overlord moniker, things started getting better. The duo recorded a demo, soon after followed by the EP Anthologies Of Abomination (with the demo songs and some newly written pieces). The demo-tracks, by the way, were released as well on a split with three other sick American Gore-Death combos. The EP was highly acclaimed, and Swine Overlord started establishing an important name within the underground scene. They were able to perform live on stage with the likes of Habitual Defilement, Goemagot or Gutfucked, and in the mean time the singer of the latter, Gutfucked’s Anthony Davis, joined the duo as vocalist. The band was able to sign to California-based Gore House Productions, which did re-release the 2012-EP, and it’s this label that takes care of Swine Overlord’s debut album, Parables Of Umbral Transcendence, too.
What Swine Overlord bring is a very technically executed form of Grind-edged Brutal Death Metal with quite some variation. It does not mean that they are original – just because they are not. But what these guys bring is an amalgam of gore and brutal Grind and Slam / Death structures, with additional elements from Tech-Death, Doom-Grind and Tech-Death-Doom-Grind-perversion. As a matter of fact, Swine Overlord seem to combine elements from Soilent Green, Abominable Putridity, Dying Fetus, Decrepit Birth and Cephalic Carnage, focusing on the interaction in between pounding heaviness and progressive craftsmanship. They do succeed, though I have a couple of remarks, being the lack of originality (but that is not a problem if it weren’t the sole please pay attention-thing) and the quality of the individual songs, which isn’t bad, yet not that egregious either. Also the lack of variation in between the songs is a pity. A couple of times I have the impression that I heard a specific piece before (whether it be a riff, a melody, a rhythm or an excerpt whatsoever). And since the current scene sort of overloads us with this kind of shit, I am not impressed. Yet once again, I have heard material that is not worth mentioning at all, and in Swine Overlord’s case I might offer you the chance to enjoy…