Emeth - Insidious

Speaking of Belgian metal, Emeth is an ultra-brutal death metal band on the aptly-named Brutal Bands label. What makes death metal “ultra-brutal” and not just “brutal”? Really, it’s all about vibe. In terms of sheer force, Suffocation hits just as hard as Emeth. Yet the latter is “ultra-brutal” because it’s underground as fuck. The artwork makes Dan Seagrave look like Thomas Kinkade, the vocals make Cookie Monster sound like Thom Yorke, and there’s not a female in sight. You know an ultra-brutal band when you hear one.

Some would argue that this music has no redeeming social value. And they might be right. Ultra-brutal death metal isn’t about musical innovation. The lyrics usually range from meaningless to abhorrent. Yet there’s a thriving scene for this music. Why? Because it kicks. It’s the sonic equivalent of ripping apart a body, feasting on its innards, and bathing oneself in its blood. There’s a purely visceral appeal in this stuff that bigger metal labels won’t touch.

If you hear enough of this sub-sub-genre, though, you’ll hear variations in the sound. Some bands are more technical. Others use drum machines or vocal effects. Emeth falls on the more technical side, though it’s not as geeky as, say, Wormed – I think. Lyrically, the band falls into the category of “big word” metal. Why does metal often fill up lyrics with big words from the dictionary (Slayer, “abacinate,” anyone?)? I have no idea what lines like this mean:

The assertion of confinements with infinite dimensions
Is the prediction of an artificial universalization
An anthropo-un-logical source of confusion
The lack of empirical evidence to measure the reticence

However, I do understand the music. Good ultra-brutal metal has certain traits, and Insidious has each one. It’s concise, as music like this is best in small doses; here, nine songs clock in at just over 31 minutes. It’s well-played; the performances here are tight, fast, and furious. It’s well-produced; here, the sound is beefy yet retains bite in the guitars. Emeth put out its second album, Reticulated, last year, and while its artwork was “better” and the songs more polished, its drum sound was abysmally thin, and I much prefer Insidious.

Ultra-brutal death metal doesn’t get much better than this, folks. How can you resist a song called “Mimetic Conflation”? You can get Insidious from Brutal Bands or by emailing Emeth.