The Rotted | ‘Anarchogram’

This second release from the artist formerly known as Gorerotted sees the band progressing in their more serious metal format, leaving behind the gagged, shagged and bodybagged, mutilated in minutes style.

It’s pretty much the same type of punked up death metal as before, and this self released EP features the first material written by the new line-up – two new songs and four covers, one chosen by each member to pay homage to their heroes.

Opener ‘Dawn Of A New Error’ keeps the same style of metal Gorerotted played, only without Phil Wilson’s high pitched screeches, instead relying on the low growls of Ben McCrow. The lyrics are fairly spat out and the music is nice and memorable, boding well for 2011’s second full length album.

Second track ‘Drink Myself To Death’ blasts out a fast paced and very chaotic number, which seems destined for the mosh pit – you know the type of frenetic one, but sadly there’s no real hooks to speak of; it’s merely a forgettable lesson in violence that will no doubt go down really well towards the end of the live set.

The first of the four covers is Motorhead’s ‘Iron Fist’ and the Londoners do a great job of taking an aggressive rock and roll track and turning it into a pretty aggressive metal track without sacrificing too much of the tune as well. There’s a great attempt to get a Lemmy-type sneer into the vocals that comes through and adds a certain air of authenticity.

Next up is ‘Propaganda’ by Sepultura, which results in being pretty much a carbon copy of the original, right down to the rumbly, growly vocal style of Max Cavalera. Only problem here is, vocalist Ben McCrow also emulates the Brazilian accent of Cavalera in quite a few instances, lending a slight air of silliness to the effort – there’s really no need to be that faithful to a cover.

‘Deathcrush’, by Mayhem is actually a pretty good version in that they dispense with the cold and bleak atmosphere of the Nordic original and instead turn it into a pretty pounding metal song that really satisfies – to such an extent that the actual track works better as a death metal song than a black metal song. The guitar work really excels here and one can’t help but wonder if there’s a market for black metal songs re-recorded in a death metal style? This one really, really works and is the standout track on the EP by a mile.

‘Out Of Hand’, originally by Entombed starts off promising with some thick guitar work, sinister subliminal background growling and a good hardy roar to open it up. However, the slight hardcore edge to the vocals turn it into a less aggressive track and the fact that it’s recorded just a tiny smidgen slower somewhat takes the power out of it and causes the song to plod a little rather than enhancing the heaviness, as was presumably the intention.

So has the move from comedy metal to serious metal benefited The Rotted? Judging by this EP, and as a fan of Gorerotted, I can’t help but miss the screaming, frantic vocals of the early style. The songs are definitely 50/50 here – some are really good, others are quite mediocre. The forthcoming album should hopefully dispel any misgivings, get some more hooks in there.

3.0 /5 - Dónal McBrien ::: 23/08/10