CORPSESSED: Skeletal Grotesquery

Release year: 2023
Label: Krucyator Productions

Live albums are something of a tricky thing to review. For the most part, live albums are essentially pure fan service, giving something to the fans they’ll hopefully appreciate. Very rarely does one come across a live album that’s worth the time of day for casual fans or newbies (although there are exceptions – check out our review of The Horrorpops’ live album for one). So when we’re looking at a release aimed for the congregation of those already converted, is there much point in mincing words about it?

And from another point of view, a studio album is a whole consisting not only of the musicianship and the production, but also the compositions e.g., the songs themselves. When it comes to live albums, typically presenting already released material, there’s not much point in starting to pick apart the compositions and commenting much on those. The place to do that is when reviewing the album proper the tracks were on.

As such, both the proposition of Corpsessed – not an unknown, but still relatively small death metal group from Finland – releasing a live album, and us reviewing it, seem a bit odd. But here we are.

In a nutshell, Corpsessed’s style of death metal is pretty Finnish. A lot of mid-tempo sections with dark, ominous guitar melodies, complemented by swirling maelstroms of faster blasting and buzzsawing riffs, not to forget fervent thrash plods. It’s heavy, with a crisp and downtuned guitar tone, laced with perhaps somewhat nondescript but decidedly gruff guttural vocals. So if Finnish death metal – or cavernous, mystical death metal in general – is your cuppa, then by all rights so might Corpsessed be.

Still, although the above description sounds exactly like my thing, Corpsessed have always been one of those “close but no cigar” type of bands for me. Their debut full-length, 2014’s Abysmal Thresholds, is the only one I own. It, like the rest of their discography, is nice, but I haven’t felt the need to rush out and buy more of their albums. Therefore I am surprised to enjoy Skeletal Grotesquery as much as I do.

The sound on the album is pretty great for what I assume isn’t exactly a top dollar project. It’s a bit murky, but the murk and the chaotic swirling work for this kind of music. The vocals, the drums and the guitars are sufficiently discernible and in passable if not perfect balance. To be sure, though, the sound doesn’t parallel the group’s studio recordings.

In addition, the band seems to be in fierce form, delivering their ancient metal of death fiercely but still precisely, sounding both ravenous and tight. This results in a package that certainly exceeds all expectations even if it doesn’t rise up to the ranks of the few truly illustrious extreme metal live albums.

I was a bit surprised when the album was announced; live albums aren’t something you come across every day anymore, especially not by bands of Corpsessed’s not-very-monumental-stature. Considering it’s not even a DVD+CD, it felt like a rather bare bones release… maybe even too.

But surprisingly, the album manages to justify its own existence. With decent sound and a good performance, it rises above my doubts. Featuring a fine distillation of the group’s material, it manages to keep things interesting for the 45 minutes it lasts.

But, to be sure, this isn’t the correct place to start getting into Corpsessed. Like live albums tend to be, Skeletal Grotesquery will find its receptive audience among friends and fans of the band; among those, who know the material sufficiently well to be able to see beyond the technical shortcomings and blemishes.

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