Some things – no matter how disgusting on the outside – just taste better when aged. Take, for example, Cazu Marzu, the cheese that is so gross that it has actually been outlawed. This Sardinian specialty literally translates to "rotten cheese", and sees a process whereby blocks of otherwise beautiful Italian Pecorino cheeses are purposely aged to become breeding grounds for nests of maggots – the natural harbingers of rot and putrefaction.
If that's not brutal enough for ya, how 'bout Kiviaq? This delicacy has been eaten for centuries by the Inuit of Northern Greenland, and it involves fermented sea birds that are eaten raw. Yep. No joke. Raw. It's kind of like cheese, but not quite. Anyway, get your recipe books out, as I'm about to reveal how this bastard is prepared. Step 1: skin a Seal and sew it into a shape of a bag. Step 2: stuff it full with 300 to 500 small birds. Step 3: sew the skin bag shut and smear it with dead Seal fat. Step 4: bury it under a pile of rocks for 18 months. Step 5: Eat. Vomit. Whatever.
So, yeah, as you can see, aging improves the putrefaction factor/flavor in certain, time-honored, traditional dishes. For the purposes of this column, we can apply these same principles to the likes of brutal slammin death metal. Not to be outdone by both Cazu Marzu and Kiviaq, the Southern Californian death metal trio, known collectively as Cranial Engorgement, spent the better part of five years creating/aging their debut full-length album, entitled Horrific Existence. The logical follow-up to their 2014 debut demo, Prelude To Horror, this thing absolutely fucking crushes – in a Dying Fetus meets slammy slammerson kinda way.
If the recently dropped video for album's title track is any indication (see said video below), the guys obviously took cues from both Dying Fetus and Kiviaq, as the maggots can be seen/heard/felt throughout the entirety of this rotting, fermenting fetus. Yep. It's disgusting… it's brutal… above all else, it reeks of goddamn putrefaction.
In the spirit of all things Dank, we invited both Noah Lopez (Guitar/Vocals), and Jonathen Rivera (Drums) to give us the low-down on Horrific Existence, which drops February 10th via Gorehouse Productions. For those that want to make sure they get this beast day-of, preorders can be found here.
Oh, btw, stay tuned for an exclusive Dank Slams stream of a brand new Cranial Engorgement track sometime over the next several days. This one is quite special, as it features none other than Dying Fetus' John Gallagher!
Take it away, guys!
NOAH: "Our upcoming album Horrific Existence is something we've been working on since we were high school students. This album was five years in the making, and now we are happy that it's finally going to be released next year through Gorehouse Productions! Getting this album finished was not easy at all. We all worked our asses off trying to finish this album and we jumped from studio to studio to get it all done. Thanks to Josh Null at Null Sound Studio, and John Haddad at Trench Studio, we are finally finished. Now everything is finally paying off and everyone here in the Cranial Engorgement family are very happy with the results – especially since we had Pär Olofsson do our album art. He really brought the name Horrific Existence to life!"
As it relates to the writing process for Horrific Existence, Noah continues…
"We took a good mix of traditional death metal and blended it with brutal death metal. We like to have a good even mix between the two so that we have the perfect flavor of death metal. We had a lot of different influences in writing this album, but I think the biggest influence when writing this album was Dying Fetus. We also have John Gallagher of Dying Fetus featured on one of our tracks too. So, that's a big plus for me since John Gallagher and Dying Fetus are one of my biggest influences in music. I guess you can say this release went exactly how we wanted it to go and I hope everyone who listens to it enjoys it as well!"
Regarding the recently released video for the title track, John reveals…
JOHN: "We wanted to make the video for "Horrific Existence" very unique and questionable, showing our audience that this is only the beginning. Dylan Avery was brought to our attention – by Paul McGuire from Cerebral Bore and Dead Haggis Productions – while standing outside the Whiskey A Go Go down the Sunset strip in Hollywood, CA. Cranial Engorgement then set out to work with Dylan and Obscenery Films. We gave Paul the OK and we flew Dylan out from New York to California. The Video was filmed in Pomona, CA in an abandoned building right next to Demented, which is a metal and punk clothing and record store. We didn't have a clue how we were going to bust this music video out, so we went with the flow and ran with a natural idea on where to set-up and where in the building we should shoot this thing. Dylan did such an incredible job, and we can't wait to work with him again."
European fans will soon get a taste of the Cranial Engorgement cake…
… you lucky Euro bastards can catch the band on tour throughout January 2017 with Defeated Sanity (previously featured here on Dank Slams). Dates are as follows…
