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Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2026-08-19 · 11:14 UTC

Utilize the Remains – Meaningless Existence Review By Kenstrosity

It is summer, and summer is for MOAR SLAMS!!! 2026 hasn’t seen the most plentiful harvest from the most cavebrained of death metal subsets, but with choice items from acts like Glassbone, Utter Scorn, Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy, and Gravecrawler, I’ve been able to keep my slam cravings moderately maintained. Alas, the hunger grows perpetually. I needed MOAR, and it needed to be good. Enter New Zealand’s verb-the-noun slam quartet Utilize the Remains and their sophomore LP, Meaningless Existence. With a fully fleshed-out lineup as of 2023, can these Pacific rimmers sate my thirst for dummy unga-bunga death?

The short answer is yes! Featuring members of War Saw, Abhor, and known slammers Organectomy, Utilize the Remains slam and chug and gurgle their way relentlessly through 36 minutes of tightly wound, stomping material that fits neatly inside genre conventions. They do exactly 0 things to push the envelope or challenge expectations the same way artists like Wormhole or Devourment regularly endeavor, and yet their work satisfies the prompt with comprehensive ease and infallible competence. Moments of intelligence flash before me as numbers like “Devouring Neuropathy” and “Biochemical Emptiness” continually evolve into ballistic variants of its main theme. Nevertheless, consistency and adherence to the classic slam formula—a formula with one ingredient: skull-bashing riffs—take first priority at all times.

Meaningless Existence may not be the most innovative slam record, but it is great fun and sure to be a hit in any pit. Huge grooves that require an intimidating stride to traverse give top cuts “Biochemical Existence,” “Vicious Redemption,” “Flesh Ripped from Bone,” “Sadistic Manipulation,” and closer “Into Eternal Oblivion” a devastating swing and swagger liable to shatter bones and burst blood vessels en masse. Highly indicative of Organectomy’s album arrangements, instrumental “Encoded Within” shines a spotlight on the instrumental team constructing these destructive payloads in fine fashion, and leads me directly into the raucous, double-bass-heavy “Vicious Redemption.” Tightly arranged, Meaningless Existence boasts a level of compositional consistency that allows its best moments to shine without leaving the rest to flounder and stumble, but there’s enough variety in pacing and patterns to keep things from getting boring before the end. For a genre with as limited a palette as slam is often provided, that feat is admirable.

Nonetheless, stronger examples of the genre have done more with the same restricted toolkit. Opening salvos “Sealed Fate” and “Necrotic Chambers of Decay” don’t leave lasting impressions to help hype me up during the first quarter, instead fading gradually out of memory as Meaningless Existence progresses. “Keep Them All Docile” similarly exhibits well in the moment, but leaves no mark in the wake of the two huge bangers that bookend its placement in the runtime. Even Meaningless Existence’s strongest moments, like “Flesh Ripped from Bone,” leave some creative potential on the table. While there are clear opportunities to twist and bend riffs into novel shapes and take unorthodox paths to something exciting and uncommonly captivating, Utilize the Remains instead tows the company line without much in the way of deviation. This adherence to slam’s established blueprint affords Meaningless Existence a familiarity and a reliable fun factor that can’t be denied. By that same coin, however, Utilize the Remains rob their audience of a more fulfilling creative experience that those familiar with the band members’ pedigrees might reasonably hope to hear.

In the end, Meaningless Existence is a perfect summer album. Simple, dependable, muscular slamming death that offers no bells and no brain cells. It’s dumb as rocks and is liable to rock the house at any venue with metric fucktons of stomping, hammering fun. It could’ve been more interesting and adventurous without sullying slam’s caveman reputation, of course—and it would’ve been easy for these musicians to write it that way, too. They didn’t. While that’s a far cry from a disappointment in this arena, I find myself fondly imagining small changes, minor alterations, and little twists that might make Meaningless Existence a more surprising release nonetheless. Still, it’s hard to go wrong with something done well, and Utilize the Remains cleared that bar with ease.

Rating: Good
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Released
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: August 18th, 2026

#2026 #30 #Abhor #Aug26 #DeathMetal #Devourment #Glassbone #Gravecrawler #MeaninglessExistence #NewZealandMetal #OnchocerciasisEsophagogastroduodenoscopy #Organectomy #Review #Reviews #SelfReleased #Slam #UtilizeTheRemains #UtterScorn #WarSaw #Wormhole

#abhor #aug26 #deathmetal #devourment #glassbone #gravecrawler

Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2026-04-06 · 11:20 UTC

Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy – Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum Review By Kenstrosity

Hot on the heels of my first encounter with Alice Simard’s work (Luminesce), another notch in her roster dropped into my unsuspecting lap. Canadian brutal slam/goregrind trio Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (henceforth referred to simply as OE) spawned seven years ago from a mire of gore, and Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum marks their second full expulsion. Mere seconds after slamming that play button, viscous fluids so voluminous as to mismatch the mass of the entities that expel them flood the entirety of my being, overflowing gushingly into the surrounding environs with destructive force. The general public gazes upon this outlandishly fecund release with equal parts disgust and fascination. Despite the grotesque nature of it all, though, I can’t in good conscience call the experience unpleasurable. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Brutal in the same inhuman way as known slammers Epicardiectomy and Organectomy, absurd as a lot of material coming out of the Indonesian and Chinese scenes are, and irreverently creative enough to recall the novel songwriting of Wormhole, Artificial Brain, Unhuman, and Unfathomable Ruination, OE’s style is often a delight and moreso a challenge. Alice (who is here credited under guitars, songwriting, and drum programming), Jesse Agiomamitis (vocals, lyrics1), and the mysterious The Popu (drum programming, guitars, lyrics, songwriting, synth, vocals) shine as a collaborative team, delivering a deceptively wide variety to what is typically an extremely limited stylistic palette. All 33 minutes of Fugue fall neatly in the brutal slamgrind niche, but it’s undeniably one of the wildest executions of the style. That unhinged spirit affords the ballistic percussion a sense of immediate danger that belies its impossible technicality, the monstrously toilet-tastic vocals a sense of vibrant dynamics they absolutely should not have, and the multifaceted guitar work a kaleidoscopic personality that colors the entire record in vivid detail.

Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum by Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy

However, and perhaps even as a consequence of these aforementioned traits, Fugue is a trial in music appreciation. Not for the faint of heart or the frail of ear, Fugue seems to wholly reject the idea of memorability as a virtue. Certainly, in its first half, before “Gutted & Corpsed” shocks me with an almost beautiful shift from relentless assault to thoughtful transitions and subversive intricacies, Fugue is hell-bent on punishing any listener that comes close. Gnashing with serrated teeth crowding a jaw capable of crushing diamond like Nerds candy, “Conquering Divinity” through “Entombed Within the Infinite Panopticon” bullies anyone that approaches with endless slam riffs (but fast), violent scrapes (“The Fallen Lament, Paralytikus Ascends”), fucked-up lead guitar atmospheres (“Severing What Makes Me Human,” “Apotheotic Apotemnophilia”), machine-gun blasts and double-bass abuse (“Entombed Within the Inifinite Panopticon”), and unreal spans of sustained phlegmy gutturals (name a song, any song). The addition of eerie bongs and bells adds to the sinister nature of these initial songs, but only minimally aids their memorability. Yet, they are all counterintuitively enjoyable in the same manner as discovering your first kink.

Thankfully, that first prolonged salvo of abject violence only takes 13 minutes, at which time Fugue shifts. It’s hard to expect creativity and thoughtful detailing to come into play with this kind of extreme fringe music. Undeterred by that reality, OE start integrating more purposeful dissonant flourishes, effervescent leads bordering against—but never quite crossing into—melody, and a downright airy atmosphere that together recall 50% Wormhole, 50% Afterbirth (“Heaven’s Empty Halls”). More Wormhole-isms abound in conjunction with Epicardiectomy madness and Artificial Brain-ed atmosphere as “Hurt Beyond Healing” and “Forged in the Blackest Reaches of Blasphemy” pair high-detail phrasing with terrifying brutalizations. While still escaping the realm of immediacy, memorability, or accessibility, Fugue’s second act shows OE’s greater range as songwriters in such a way as to compel me to revisit with great anticipation, enthusiastic for the deeper details I might uncover.

While far from easy to love, for any number of reasons all associated with the extreme nature of its composition and its over-the-top execution, Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum is an album of rare quality in the scene of disgusting, inhuman music. Many will balk at its cartoonish gurgle vox, its total lack of subtlety in the first phase, and the relentlessness of its dense and complex instrumentation. Those who weather that storm will discover something a bit more substantial underneath. I didn’t expect to find that substance myself, but here I am. Join me, if you think you can handle it!

Rating: Good!
DR: 42 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Stillbirth Records
Websites: officialonchocerciasis.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/OnchoOfficial
Releases Worldwide: April 3rd, 2026