Fistula : "Longing For Infection"

Raw and rooted in punk, this Ohio band is more about nastiness and being loud more than adhering to the expectations of any genres. When their singer snarls about some one being stabbed in the face forty time, he proves to be a storyteller who needs little suspension of disbelief. The verse to grind down into a more metal groove, but this feels more real than most metal. The samples of news stories covering sexually assaulted corpses, gives this a similar shade of gruesome glory that Acid Bath once had. He gurgles lyrics like "mommy told me not to play with dead things" to create a wonderfully morbid web of white trash horror stories, this could be "the Hills Have Eyes" set to music. The line "I don't care how you got here/ suicide is cool with me" is worth the price of admission into the second song. Too many bands have their vocals as an after thought with even less attention given to the lyrics, so these guys take me back to a time when lyrics mattered in metal.

"The Big Turnout"  is a crusty ode to women in prison. It's not a bad song, but it's grooves just don't do as much for me. "Destitute" is more deliberate in it's darkened plod. A more Sabbath like tone takes the riff at the two minute mark. They employ varied levels of chug more often than not on this song they are more sludge ridden.  Perhaps it was the clean care smell of hearing them for the first time that I recall, but "Smoke Acid Shoot Pills" doesn't carry the same twisted charm the first few songs had. Yes, some of the riffs are heavy as fuck, but you know the rule around here is cool riffs alone don't make a song. "Loyal to the Foil" is about smoking crack and most of the album is about some kind of degenerate drug use. "Detox" is another drug crazed rant, I think I might like the energy behind it better than the more dirt bag gutter punk metal of the previous song. They regain the cracked out charm they had in the first few songs here.

Overall this album is fun, it's like Acid Bath, without the clean vocals and trippy sections , which you would assume is what Goatwhore would sound like. That's another thing this band has going for it, is they don't try to be blackened anything. There is not a blast beat in sight. If you are a regular reader of this site then you know I like black metal, I'm just tired of bands being what they are not. These guys are themselves. I'll give this one an 8. Some of the more straight forward moment where the lyrics are not as in your face begin to lose me, over all solid album though.