Avulsed – Altar Of Disembowelment

Spain’s finest Avulsed are one of those bands that haven’t quite got the recognition they deserve, since 1991 they have been kicking out dirty, gore ridden death metal and they have a catalogue as long as your arm and while they may not be the most original band going they do what they say on the tin and do it well.

This new EP is business as usual. You have great gory artwork and lyrics and riffs as thick as marmite! The whole thing has that old school feel running through it, it brings to mind the old albums by Benediction, Bolt Thrower and Carcass but what I love on this EP is the crisp, clean production. Normally when a band plays death metal with that crusty edge it just doesn’t mix with clean modern production. The two cancel each other out but this sounds awesome and none of the grittiness or heaviness is lost.

Opening track 'To Sacrifice And Devour' kicks off with this crusty riff backed by pummeling drums which lead to a great melodic chorus that’s dark as hell and again a little reminiscent of Carcass and it sounds great. Another highlight is 'Ceremony Of Impalement'. This track is fucking killer! It runs between a shredding chorus and a groove to die for at the chorus. Towards the end there is this massive doomy riff that just crushes and has this sense of dread carried with it. It’s awesome. I was worried when reading the tracklist that the EP finishes with a cover of Black Sabbath’s 'Neon Knight’s'. I didn’t think it could be done, I thought it was going to be horrible but kudos to the band, they pull it off! I’m not a massive fan of it but it could have been terrible and to be fair once I did forget it was there and I found myself nodding along to it before I remembered what it was, it’s definitely worth a listen. I’ll leave it up to you on that one.

All in all this is great stuff; it’s a nice 20 minutes of old school death metal. No surprises nor disappointments. It strikes a balance in all the right places if you are a fan of any of the previous mentioned bands you can’t go wrong.


  1. To Sacrifice And Devour
  2. Red Viscera Serology
  3. Ceremony Of Impalement
  4. Tremble In The Darkness
  5. Neon Knights (Black Sabbath)