Foetal Juice – Grotesque
Foetal Juice – Grotesque
Gore House Productions
Release Date: 17/11/2023
Running Time: 41:00
Review by Rory Bentley
8.5/10
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Lights are getting switched on by Z-list celebrities, trees are going up far too early and everyone on Metal Twitter is finally getting round to listening to their album of the year for the second time like the clout-chasing c**ts they are. Sorry, that last bit was a little personal. Accurate, but personal. But nothing says festive cheer like a brand-new Foetal Juice album, right? Right?! Ok fair cop, the Mancunian gore-drenched audio perverts probably aren’t going to soundtrack a John Lewis advert any time soon, but this latest effort has somehow filled my warped little heart with festive cheer like a hot gingerbread latte at a carol concert. “Grotesque” by name and definitely by nature this is 40 minutes of joyously twisted groovy Death Metal with hooks for days.
2023 will perhaps go down as the peak of the Death Metal revival, with every strain of the genre turning in truly excellent albums, so it makes sense that Foetal Juice are crashing the party with a fresh case of beer and some of the sickest riffs this side of Dying Fetus. The FJ boys are not so much a comedy band as a party band, the lyrics are often tongue in cheek but the music and songcraft are no joke. To make infectious floor-fillers (gore-fillers?) without sacrificing an ounce of the kind of filthy savagery that makes normal people think Metal fans have something seriously wrong with them is no mean feat, but the band pull this off 11 times without breaking a sweat.
Things kick off with the Grindcore-tinged ‘Human Beach Master’ which barrels along at warp speed conducted with cantankerous menace by the blood and guts bark of Derek Carley and bolstered by the frantic but swinging stick work of Rob Harris. From the first second you know what you’re in for when those heart pounding chugs and razor-tight tremolo riffs kick in, and having pacier numbers like this and the fantastically titled ‘Two Bongs Don’t Make a Right’ (which is about throwing up after smoking too much weed, naturally) provides the perfect change of pace to the more stomping mid-paced numbers that make up a lot of the record.
Not that mid-paced is in any way a criticism here, as big nasty grooves are the band’s bread and butter and probably my favourite thing about Death Metal in general. ‘Legion Of The Grotesque’ is at its most effective when Ryan Whittaker is punctuating the more technical moments with long sections of jackhammer palm-muting like an undead Johnny Ramone. Songs like this and the putrid single ‘Ghoul Amongst The Mouldering Dead’ are composed to ebb and flow so the more vicious technical sections hit you harder and the slower sections get your lil necro butt shaking that much harder when they come in. Combine this with a sharp but suitably grimy production job and you’ve got something as addictive as brains to a zombie that absolutely flies by.
Things stay largely in this pocket, with the closest thing to branching out being an eerie clean section on final track ‘Gruesome’, which mainly serves to make the back half of the song abhorrently savage by comparison, ending the record on a high and leaving you ravenous for more. “Grotesque” does very little that we’ve not heard from Foetal Juice before, and it’s not going to change your life but in a year of excellent Death Metal it can still go toe to toe with the best of the bunch. This Christmas give someone you love the gift of gore.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Human Beach Master
02. Mountain Of Gore
03. Legion Of The Grotesque
04. Ghoul Amongst The Mouldering Dead
05. Two Bongs Don’t Make A Right
06. Cunt Of The Litter
07. Cemetery Leachate
08. The Walking Groin
09. Torn Apart
10. F.K.E.O.
11. Gruesome
LINE-UP:
Lewis Bridges- Bass
Derek Carley- Vocals
Ryan Whittaker- Guitar
Rob Harris- Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Rory Bentley and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
