Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy – Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum
Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy – Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum
Gore House Productions
Release Date: 03/04/26
Running Time: 32:32
Review by Dark Juan
Infinty/10
Fucked if I am typing the name of this band again in this piece of writing. I hesitate to use the word “review” because it would not be entirely accurate. Be prepared for a thousand words or thereabouts that may or may not contain the words “big log”, “sausage”, “love” and “small poisonous monkey”. “Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum” is another album that has been sitting balefully in my little holding cage of music waiting to be given my attention and for reasons that I don’t want to go into here it has been forced to bide its time until I deign to give it my attention.
Today is that day.
The Platter of Splatter ™ has been dragged bodily out of the local den of iniquity (otherwise known as the Loose Goose, named after the Sowerby Bridge Massive, being a bunch of geese that regularly cause traffic chaos by having a well earned rest from mugging the good burghers of the Bridge for chips from the Golden Haddock chippy and then sleeping them off in the middle of the A58), forced to submit to my august will and has had the latest release from OxE (if you want the name of the band just look at the title of this piece already) rammed bodily into its slot. Let us commence with the absolute horrors that will have been committed to posterity on this album.
A quick background on OxE – they are a multinational band, originally a solo project of Canadian Alice Simard, but then subsequently encompassing the very ripped and deeply terrifying The Popu from Germany and then the conduit for the aural representations of demonic possession and absolute horror that is Jess Agiomamitis is Australian. The organisational skills of this band must be fucking legendary. I can’t even arrange my dogs properly when I am seated on the sofa and have to contort myself to suit their whims…
Holy shitfuck. This is even more mental than the last time I listened to OxE. Here is the link to that excellent piece of prose – https://www.ever-metal.com/2024/07/26/onchocerciasis-esophagogastroduodenoscopy-the-fallen-lament/, which now prevents me from using any metaphors about the music sounding like the industrialised slaughter of children for food purposes because that’s what I did last time… What I will say is that the band has once more provided (very thoughtfully) a lyric sheet that is still of absolutely no fucking use whatsoever as vocalist Jesse Agiomamitis simply defaults to vomiting up his own innards all over the microphone and channelling demons of many different forms while The Popu on drums tears his own extremely muscular arms out of their sockets and Alice Simard shreds her fingers to flayed, bloody, remnants on the guitar. It’s Alice I am most afraid of as she is small and cute and wears cat ears and is clearly and openly absolutely fucking homicidal. If you got her and Beryl from Basement Torture Killings together I can altogether guarantee there’s going to be gruesome slaughter punctuated with girlish giggles and squeals of joy and then a veritable fountain of gore and severed limbs being thrown out of various windows…
I am joking, of course. One of the things I like most about OxE (no, still not doing it) is the fact that the vocals are used as another instrument in the creation of the music. Jesse’s range is such that he can supply the most horrifying subterranean grunts to the sharpest and frequently painful shrieks – and his breath control is such that he can keep up the needle-pointed, high-pitched vocal sonic assault for quite a long time. Which is as impressive as it is agonising. The vocals do add a fascinating dynamic to the music which engages the interest of the listener and makes you wonder just where the mad vocal fucker is going next. He has even managed to come up with some new and deeply disturbing noises with his throat.
Track 2, ‘The Fallen Lament, Paralytikus Ascends’ is of interest here as it featured on previous EP “The Fallen Lament” but has been re-recorded with a much more… can’t say polished because nothing on this record is polished as much as just slick with fresh blood… FOCUSED (that’s a good one and will keep the tiny homicidal guitar maniac off my back. Ironically I am not afraid of The Popu despite his impressive physique and inhuman stamina) performance from the whole band. OxE are truly, magnificently indescribable – their music is insanely overpowered, stupendously heavy and deeply psychologically disturbing.
This is why Dark Juan likes them so much, even though he is going to have to go and do something involving flowers and fucking kittens later lest the streets of Sowerby Bridge run crimson with claret. The unsuspecting or unseasoned listener would probably characterise the music of OxE as either a) clattering noise with very little resemblance to music, b) can’t dance to this shit, mate or c) oh, look! Another Grindcore band!
They would be very, VERY wrong. OxE are truly special and encompass much more than the spittle-spraying snarling of Grindcore by itself. They are in fact a massively talented, extremely Progressive band. They have cornered the market in Extreme Prog. They are the progenitors of Prog Goregrind. Every piece on this album, even though a slow song for OxE doesn’t really dip below 200bpm, sounds unique and different from the one before and each has much interest for the listener who isn’t just out to have their brains reduced to jelly – a strong Prog influence has already been noted and there are more than occasional flashes towards Extreme Jazz in the vein of The Locust, as well as movements than are only interested in bludgeoning the listener until they are chunky salsa. All of this, though, despite the prodigious and overwhelming power and speed of the music, is delivered with a monomaniac precision that is truly terrifying with its exacting nature and unstoppable force. Electronics fizz and burn over guitar tones that slice into eardrums and flesh and the incomprehensible roaring, screaming, grunting, gurgling and shrieking of the vocals all coalesce into something that is so unique there has not been a term invented for it yet. OxE are what happens when structure and chaos are rammed together and left to duke it out. However, there appears (to my ears anyway) a kind of perverse friendliness and an almost cheerful leaning into wondering just how extreme we can get behind the music. Worryingly, this is a comfort to Dark Juan, even though my flesh is being stripped to the bones by the music and my ears are bleeding, I still want OxE to be my friends.
I’ve never been good at positive life choices.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System (Le système breveté de notation des éclaboussures de sang de Dark Juan pour mes amis francophones et canadiens – Si OxE est ce qui sort de ce putain de Québec, alors je n’irai JAMAIS là-bas, bande de fous furieux! Das patentierte Dark Juan Blutspritzer-Bewertungssystem für meine deutschen Freunde, da The Popu deutsch ist. Verdammt nochmal, Deutschland, ihr bringt echt gruselige Typen hervor. For the Aussies – G’Day mate. I wasn’t aware that the murderous nature of Australian flora and fauna now extended to the vocalists your fine country produces. Just STOP already) is now dangerously overstimulated and has drunk half a bottle of rum in less than 10 seconds in an effort to not go out murdering after listening to OxE and awards them infinity/10 because Dark Juan loves their deeply idiosyncratic take on Goregrind so much. This is an album for the ages, but it is one for the seasoned and experienced listener.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Conquering Divinity
02. The Fallen Lament, Paralytikus Ascends
03. Severing What Makes Me Human
04. Apotheotic Apotemnophilia
05. Entombed Within the Infinite Panopticon
06. Gutted & Corpsed
07. Heaven’s Empty Halls
08. Hurt Beyond Healing
09. Abyssikataplexika
10. Vile Verses Flogged into the Wings of Angels
11. Forged in the Blackest Reaches of Blasphemy
LINE-UP:
Jesse Agiomamitis: Vocals, lyrics
Alice Simard: Composition, guitars, lead guitars
The Popu: Additional songwriting, mixing and mastering, guitars, bass, orchestration and sound design, additional lyrics, additional vocals
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan 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.
