BLASPHEMOUS PUTREFACTION: Prelude To Perversion

Release year: 2020
Label: Dunkelheit Produktionen

With a name like Blasphemous Putrefaction, you don’t have to do too much guessing to figure out the genre. Yes, death metal is the name of the game. And then, when you take a look at the rather crude and simplistic cover art, it won’t take you too long to figure out what the German band’s approach to the genre is – straightforward, stubborn and crude.

So, even before listening to the album, it’s easy to form a pretty clear and accurate picture of the band. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, is it?

You see, whilst it’s true that Blasphemous Putrefaction offer no surprises on Prelude To Perversion – their debut album – they do keep up a consistent level of quality in their primitive approach to the genre. And, especially when keeping the playing time at a sensible 34 minutes, that suffices.

The guitarist of the band, whose mother gave him the beautiful name Satanic Death Vulva at birth, also plays in Goatblood, one of those crude bestial black metal bands who owe a heavy debt to early Beherit and Blasphemy. Maybe to some extent it is because I know this, but I can certainly hear a certain spiritual kinship to that warlike school of black metal in Blasphemous Putrefaction’s music. There’s that same kind of straightforward, crude, stripped-down brutality on Prelude To Perversion. Nothing extra, no ornamentation or finesse, no technical flair, just the charge of a vicious warthog.

Blasphemous Putrefaction’s rudimentary form of primitive, brutal death metal is, in a way, death metal at its purest. You can’t hear the Swedish sound here, this doesn’t owe a debt to brutal US death metal, it doesn’t tap into the melancholic and doom-laden melodies of the Finnish classics. This is… just death metal. Pure and simple. If anything, I’d say the bestial black metal/war metal references are the best pointer to what Blasphemous Putrefaction sounds like. Imagine a spiritual kinsman to those bands, but musically pure death metal, and you’re hitting nails on the head.

On one hand, there’s a definite and undeniable charm to death metal this pigheaded and stubbornly crude. It’s so straight to the point, so open about it’s essence, that you can’t help but dig it. On the other, however, it must be admitted that there’s little to no impetus to very frequently return to this. Once you’ve spun it a few times, Prelude To Perversion doesn’t have much to offer.

So, in the end, Prelude To Perversion is one of those albums where you can’t really complain about anything, but still… but still… you know. It just doesn’t have that lasting appeal bona fide classics have, that magical aura that keeps you coming back for more time after time. Be that as it may, people who eschew technicality and intricate songwriting for thick-browed primitivism and barbaric brutality will certainly find at least a few spins’ worth of entertainment here.

3/5

Visit Blasphemous Putrefaction on Facebook