Severed Headshop – The Fuckening (EP)
Release Date: 5th August 2022
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Brutal Death Metal, Deathgrind, Slam Death Metal, Blackened Death Metal, Technical Death Metal.
FFO: Skinless, Cattle Decapitation, early Decapitated, Psycroptic.
Review By: Joe McKenna
Hailing from South Bend, Indiana, in the summer of 2010, Severed Headshop have prided themselves on performing a unique, savage, and at times, amusing form of death metal that blends the rawness of early 2000s brutal death metal, with a more modern sound that utilises many grindcore and slamming death riffs. The band, comprised of drummer Justin Wallisch, vocalist Joe Jacobs, guitarist Ryan Kuder, and bassist Ian Dygulski, began their extreme endeavours with the debut release It’s About Fucking Time, showcasing their volatile and filthy brand of death metal by self-releasing the record in true DIY spirit. Severed Headshop now return with their next effort, the band’s first EP, appropriately titled The Fuckening. So, sit back and embrace the carnage because the Fuckening has only just begun.
There certainly is no holding back on this EP as the band initiate a range of aggressive and pummelling musical characteristics, from the constant intensity of blast beats to the complex, impulsive riffs that command brute force. The vocals undertake these vicious growls at a profound range, that seems all too familiar of that classic 90’s death metal flair. The Instrumentation does its best to explore the different elements of death metal’s various musical directions such as the chainsaw guitar riffs that resemble the rawness of that early 2000s brutal death era, for example, Self-Gorification attains many puncturing rhythmic beats and buzzing guitar riffs whilst the vocals deliver these harrowingly low death growls. The bass accompaniment however adds to the band’s openness of adding some technical aptitude with these sweeping, slap-filled grooves that just sound so nasty. Later tracks like …And The Night Was Dark as Fuck even sees the artists open to employing various black metal elements through the harmonic guitar parts and shrieking vocal cries, these are often met by technical bass and drum fills that seem to fit rather nicely, showing the band’s natural creativity.
It comes as no surprise, judging by some of these song titles and Severed Headshop’s light-hearted demeanour, that the band are very open to playing around with some of the less serious aspects of death metal. Statutory Fate exemplifies the often-fun side of things through the opening use of samples and cartoonish theatrics in the opening few seconds of the track. The lyrical themes also play into death metal’s appetite for gore, violence, and other themes of a graphic and extreme nature. Whilst perhaps often these themes may appear to pander to the edgy side of the death metal fandom, particularly when thinking of subgenres like Slam, Severed Headshop can at least back these twisted, deprived, sickening fantasies with equally dark musical abilities that allow us to dive deeper into the depraved minds of the songs protagonists and embrace the carnality of it all.
In a sense, the range of diverse source material that Severed Headshop embodies within the death metal world is vast. The technicality in many sections are certainly reminiscent of many grindcore and tech death bands, whilst the brutal and slam sections give them some much-needed ferocity, it’s then the tinges of black metal and the happy-go-lucky charm of the band that’s the icing on the cake. The future seems bright for Severed Headshop, with new material on the horizon and touring opportunities for the band, it will be interesting to see what then band can experiment with next.
(3.5 / 5)
