Artist: Embodied
Title: Perception Perverse
Type: Album
Label: self-released

This is the second album from the Australian band Embodied who apart from a period of inactivity between 1999 and 2002, have been around since 1997. All the usual words that can be applied to a work of Brutal Death Metal can be applied here: bludgeoning, gore-laden, remorseless and punishing. With this style, I don’t find it’s about picking out the subtleties, although technically “Perception Perverse” is very good. The growls and continued intensity are such that they are clearly intended to get inside our skin. The track titles speak for themselves: “Endless Chaos”, “World Defiled”, “Bathed in Blood” and so forth. In fact it’s easy to picture an attack going on during “Bathed in Blood” with knives being brandished and blood going everywhere. At the same time the track is dark yet livened up by a flourishig guitar so as it grinds on. Above all this album is relentless, there’s no respite and the music reflects a bloody war out there.

Slow screams and triggering drums greet us from the outset but it never races off. This work is fiercely controlled and has a solid rhythm, a bit like Aborted I thought. There’s something immediately unsettling and macabre about the opener “Consumed by the Afterlife”. “(21st Century) Plague” continues the ever bludgeoning Brutal Death Metal, reminding me of those “intimate” gore-spattered evenings at the Purple Turtle. Like all good Brutal Death Metal, at times it has that quality of battering its way through treacle before breaking free. Having broken free, Embodied go on the offensive with the war-like “World Defiled”. The razor-sharp guitar is the symbol of attack as the track drives forward like an express train. It’s almost possible to hear the machine gun fire. “Endless Chaos” puts us through the mill, then “Infernal Agony” gives us another change of style. The growls continue as ever as the music becomes more anarchic than ever. There’s a fiery volley of drums while the track is held together by a solid wall of guitar sounds. After “Bathed in Blood” comes “Through the Flesh”. The screams are piercing to start, but most noteworthy is that this track has the most fluid rhythm so far. Imagine being attacked by a rapid-fire hammer drill, and you’ve got it. This is where Embodied are clever. So far each track has its own gruesome identity but to press home the impact of “Through the Flesh”, “Drone” takes over from it. The riff is that of machine-gun fire, the drum pops and the vocalist continues to roar. Later it descends into rampant chaos. It may be uncomfortably blood-soaked but there’s great movement. Finally, “On to Oblivion” is slower and darker. It’s mid-paced and deep with a sinister ring to match the guitar sirening. The pitch reminded me of Hypocrisy. What is most impressive is that Embodied know how to up the ante and mix it up. The track and album end majestically.

I couldn’t say that there’s anything new about “Perception Perverse” but it gets rid of some gremlins just the same. I very much appreciate the fact that it’s a well-structured album, leading us vocally and musically from one gory scenario to another. There’s always the risk with this style that bludgeoning the listeners becomes self-fulfilling and uninteresting but this isn’t the case here.

http://www.myspace.com/embodiedmetal