It’s Monday and Mondays are…great! It’s time to wake up and smell the Pharmacist carcass.
That's right, the Japanese duo Pharmacist has a new full-length to unleash on us. Those that have been following the band know they have been punching out quality death metal tinged with goregrind since 2020. Were there a true successor to the Carcass death metal sound, Pharmacist would be the band. And they are back with their second full-length: Flourishing Extremities On Unspoiled Mental Grounds.
Utilizing the incredible, saw-dust shredding abilities of Andrew Lee (Ripped to Shreds, Houkago Grind Time, etc.), Pharmacist offer up seven tracks of death metal with a touch of goregrind. The album kicks off with the aptly named "Accelerating Suppuration." A track that is so death metal it verges on grindcore, but never fully takes on the genre. It opens with pure death grinding blasts and makes no bones about shifting between shredding death and bloody grind. As a set-up for the record, this is what one should have come to expect from Pharmacist at this point. They both dabble and relish in the old school way of death.
Throughout the forty-six-minute run time Pharmacist use almost every second to pummel forward. The album is stacked with heavy riffs and solos in a way that it almost feels like Pharmacist is stumbling over corpses to riff harder. But at the same time, they hold it down by switching things up with a breakdown here and there or a solo. The thing about this album is that is a straightforward pummeler. Almost every track is over seven-minutes and Pharmacist are not shy on focusing on disgustingly heavy riffs and repeating them before switching it up and making things even grosser. It's a practice that makes perfect.
According to Andrew Lee on the new Pharmacist album:
"ES asked me to provide all the lead guitars on the new Pharmacist album, and it was definitely a challenge! Lots of wonky riffs where it was difficult to find a good balance of melody and chaotic Slayer shit. But I think it turned out great, with a lot of contrast between melody and the frantic blastbeats and also some pure weird shit that I tried to play. I also asked ES to provide some guest vocals on the new Houkago Grind Time album, where he absolutely killed it!"
And Pharmacist had this to say about their latest release:
"This album was challenging and fun to do at the same time, and the result is exactly what I wanted to do. With huge help of guest participates, the album got more room and vibe to it, while having same riff based ground. I am happy in the end it barely fits to any genre definition, having a bit of everything while being something else."
For those that need a barrage of death riffs that grind hard as hell, look no further. If you need a band that keeps the Carcass spirit alive and damn well, Pharmacist hold that ground without violating it. It is difficult to hear this and and not think of Carcass but that is far more of a compliment than anything else. Get grinding on this!
