It’s Monday and Happy Halloween, the greatest holiday on Earth! And while there’s plenty of Gothic appreciation and Lovecraft mythos to go around via the doom genre, we’re going to celebrate this one with the first Embalming Theatre full-length Sweet Chainsaw Melodies.
In advance, I’m going to apologize for this. I’ve been awake for thirty…six hours now? Things are a little uncertain and distorted. Pulling all-nighters for work isn’t what it used to be ten years ago. So if this comes across as incoherent, it’s probably a mix of the sleep deprivation, and the bloodlust this album brings out.
“The saw…the saw is family!” After a brief minute-long intro, Embalming Theatre get straight down to the gory business with a quote from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. And as far as metaphors go, there is probably no better way to describe Embalming Theatre. How is that? Well, one of the band’s trademarks is their sense of humor, which is much akin to TCM2’s insane/comedic approach. And frankly, a track about a chainsaw fight wouldn’t be out of the question for their content. Most of their lyrics are based on real stories, which the lyric sheet even summarizes. And it is utterly fantastic…in a really depraved way. Pieces like the incredibly catchy “We Ate Daddy” and “Execution by Hanging is Not a Game” might just get stuck in your head all day.
The songs are brutish and short, seldom clocking in over two-minutes, and only one track clocking in over the four-minute mark. Though the band’s deadly approach is spread throughout twenty-two tracks, they portray not only an ability to keep things interesting at the lyrical angle, but also keep songs distinguishable. Yeah, the album is loud and filthy, but the band has rhythm and breaks things up. As an example, “Someone Else in my Coffin” and “Chatroom Impalers” aren’t tracks you’re likely going to mix up, though they flow one after the other smoothly and quickly.
If you’ve heard goregrind before you’ve probably come across Embalming Theatre. The impression of goregrind, I think for a lot of people starts and ends with bands like Hemorrhage, Dead Infection, Last Days of Humanity, General Surgery, etc., or is believed to verge on pornogrind (and in some cases it does). Embalming Theatre are definitely of the old school approach, and they play it well. Raw, gritty, and grinding.
The Swedish grinders have released a sizable amount of splits and demos in between their three full-lengths. If you’ve somehow side-stepped their grinding madness, Halloween is a perfect time to get acquainted with their raw, death-dealing blasts. Sweet Chainsaw Melodies might be the bloodshed you need this holiday.
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