Corrosive – Death As A Process
Release Date: 3rd June 2022
Label: Black Sunset
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Cannibal Corpse, Aborted, Suffocation, Hate Eternal, Incantation.
Review By: Rick Farley
Typically, bands that have been in the music business for twenty-five plus years tend to slow down, mellow out or even switch gears musically. In the case of Germanys, no frills death metal band Corrosive, they’re doing the exact opposite by opening up their music to even darker and more extreme styles. Which makes Death as a Process sound more modern without upsetting any old fans. Formed in the mid-nineties, the band have aggressively been playing their nasty, groove laced, neck snapping version of Swede-death and Florida influenced death Metal while sadly being completely underground and remaining relatively obscure. With resurgence of the old school sound being all the rage again and older bands releasing records again, tons more eager and open ears are listening. Let’s hope that Corrosive finally gets the exposure and recognition they deserve.
Deeply rooted in the horror and gore aspects, Corrosive bring a tongue in cheek vibe to their songs with titles like Human Puzzle, Romance for Barbecue, and When She Smells like Warm Butter. That last being my personal favourite. The music is deadly serious though and offer up everything a death metal infected heart desire. The delightfully gory lyric video When Body and Mind are Separated is a mid to faster paced backbreaker of brutal thrashiness. Raw and filthy sounding, it takes your corpse on a roller coaster ride of stompiness and frantic blast beats. The guitars flow from sick grooves to fast tremolo picking like a killer’s knife slicing his victim’s neck. The vocals are deep and cavernous, harking back to the days when death metal singers sounded like demons. The track feels bouncy and fun, delivering an undeniable hookiness, but still remains brutal as hell. There’s even a doom-laden song called Necroloveicon, starts with a slowly picked clean guitar, switching to distorted resonating chords while picking those same airy notes, before it switches to chugging the palm muted version of the melody for the verse. The song revisits the distorted openness as what seems to be the chorus adding a sombre doomy twist with the harsh vocals overtop complete with a goth style keyboard melody slightly heard in the background. Musically, different and a bit of reprieve from all the bone breaking riffs and pounding drums that permeate the overall punishing atmosphere. Death Bed Visions brings back the stompy, bouncy death metal swagger. Fervently destroying everything in its path. Like an exorcism gone wrong, the song uses blackened passages and slight discordant melodies to sinister stuff up. While Your Pain is my Gain is a heavy as fuck, slightly disjointed chorded riffing monster that’s equivalent to bulldozing a wall of zombies. The merciless blast beats, and demonic vocals rip and shred the flesh, while gnawing on the rotting bones. This is a splendid slab of destructive old school that’s only intent is to smash everything within ear shot.
Death as a Process is a fine death metal offering that comes with a few flaws. The production, vocally and guitar wise, is very good. Both being mixed well. The guitars are metallic but still have a raw edge, and the vocals are crisp and powerful. The low end is present and thick, but I would have liked a little distinguishable presence. The drums can get jumbled up in the mix in the more chaotic sections, but minor complaints for what turns out to be a damn enjoyable chunk of death metal goodness that’s sure to please old fans and garner some new ones. 
(4 / 5)
