#uniqueleaderrecords — Public Fediverse posts

After four years of studio silence, Kenoshan cavemen Jungle Rot emerge from the bush with twelfth platter, Cruel Face of War. For the uninitiated, Jungle Rot plays groovy death metal that’s hostile, bludgeoning, and never dares to overthink anything. Their output has been more reliable than our coverage, and reviewing every other album since 2011’s Kill on Command, each has earned a ‘Mixed’ rating. Interestingly, the two albums we missed reviewing, Terror Regime and Jungle Rot, are the best of that group, particularly their self-titled effort. Now faced with our first consecutive Jungle Rot evaluation, can Cruel Face of War break the mold, or does it run through the Jungle on cruise control?

‘Consistency is key’ perseveres as a pillar of advice I mete out and live by,1 and this lesson sticks with Jungle Rot like flies on a decomposing carcass. After three decades of mouth-breathing death jams, the band still delivers freshly forged OSDM every two to four years that reeks of Obituary and Bolt Thrower. While the hardcore and deathcore vestiges have diminished,2 trace amounts of Hatebreed and Slaughter to Prevail lurk within Jungle Rot’s fetid funk, especially Dave Matrise’s vocals. To be fair, any fluctuations in their sound become conversations of degrees, and since Fueled by Hate dropped in 2004, Jungle Rot has been lodged in a groove so deep they haven’t pulled out from it yet.

Jungle Rot sounds best when they inject a bit of melody into their formula, and those crumbs unerringly serve as the best morsels on Cruel Face of War. Maybe that’s because only those moments break up the monotony of an otherwise wearisome chuggathon, where an unvarying landscape of riffs and grooves blur together into an indistinct sea of homogenous death metal. For instance, the riffs on “When the Elders Rise” and “Rot Riffs” carry just enough character to help differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack, but otherwise, I can’t distinguish between most others without playing them back-to-back. To Jungle Rot’s credit, they possess a sound uniquely their own. But like a painter who only uses a single color, they lock themselves into a self-imposed prison of uniformity that undercuts any notion of tension or contrast.

Despite the detractors, Jungle Rot’s adherence to convention pays dividends as well. Pit-ready grooves and stank-inducing verses make great fodder for good ol’ fashioned head-banging, and while the simplicity limits Cruel Face of War’s upside, it also ensures a stable foundation to build upon. Regarding pacing, Jungle Rot plays with two speeds: a menacing, mid-paced skulk and a faster, more predatory trot. Though they never commit to woebegone plods or balls-out blitzes, there’s just enough variety to keep things engaging without moving too far away from Jungle Rot’s established sonic ideal. Additionally, Cruel Face of War merits praise for the efficient yet expressive solos, particularly on “Cruel Face of War” and “Horrors Vile,” with Geoff Bub and David Matrise credited for guitars.3 Bassist James Genenz rumbles and groans alongside, supplying a meaty dimension to Cruel Face of War, and drummer Spenser Syphers pounds and pummels as needed. Dan “The Man” Swanö even handles mixing and mastering, granting the immediate boost he bestows to nearly everything he touches.

Cruel Face of War never outright errs, yet Jungle Rot proves so reticent to stray from the path oft-traveled that I wonder why they recorded new material. Jungle Rot felt like a promising step forward, infusing wicked melodies into the band’s brutish brand of death metal. Since then, Jungle Rot seems content to churn out mildly different flavors of the same core recipe with rapidly diminishing returns. After thirty years of staying the course, I’m not hopeful that Jungle Rot will venture into unfamiliar territory, but without stepping outside their comfort zone, I don’t foresee them bursting free from their Jungle Rut.

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 224 kbps mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 15th, 20264

Cordyceps – Hell Inside Review

By Angry Metal Guy

Written By: Nameless-N00b_604

Artists don’t necessarily need to draw deep from their inner lives to make enjoyable art, but they do to make great art. Denver, Colorado’s Cordyceps—whose debut EP drew acclaim from the late, great Trevor Strnad—have dug deep on their sophomore album Hell Inside and dredged up something nasty. A meditation on struggle, pain, and the time an ex-friend stabbed vocalist Rafael Gonzalez three times in the chest, Hell Inside portrays the tortured psyche by way of a metaphorical cordyceps fungus infecting and ravaging the mind. Cordyceps have done the soul searching needed for something special. But is it something special?

The title Hell Inside isn’t only a declaration of the album’s themes: it’s also an apt description. Paces shift frenziedly on “Filth” and “I Am Hate” while riffs chug and squeal on “Obliterate” and “Flock of Sheep.” Hell Inside’s guitar solos evoke Slayer with DeLorean Nero’s dive-happy antics (“Murder All,” “Flock of Sheep”) while drummer Michael Nolan commits percussion abuse with concussive and groovy octopus-handed drum fills. Meanwhile, bassist Chris Rosset brings a clicky, bludgeoning Cannibal Corpse-like tone and aggression throughout the runtime. Though death metal to the core, Hell Inside emits the occasional whiffs of thrash (“Flock of Sheep,”) doom (“Diseased Mind”), and even a little Panteraesque groove metal qualities (“I Am the Plague”) to stir up the mix. Much of Hell Inside’s appeal is that – bear with me – of deathcore, reveling in ridiculously down-tuned riffs, start-stop rhythms, and brown-note vocals. But Cordyceps isn’t beholden to deathcore’s reliance on breakdowns and instead fuels their pandemonium with a near-relentless fervor at times reminiscent of Ascended Dead’s Evenfall of the Apocalypse. Instrumentally, Hell Inside possesses the callousness of industrial machinery biting through fingers and is sure to nuke any unprepared listeners into fine assdust.1

But where Cordyceps’ vulnerability – their volatility – originates is Gonzalez’s vocals, the easy highlight of Hell Inside. He hardly sounds human, spitting wet, unhinged gurgles that at times sound like Lovecraftian squid-men (“Diseased Mind”), dying animals (“Obliterate”), Afterbirth’s Will Smith (“Regret”), and, at 2:14 in “Obliterate,” the nightmare echoes from the truck stop toilet bowl of Hell. But there’s a technicality behind Gonzalez’s vocals, too: see the obscene low notes of “Diseased Mind” or the twenty-six-second run in “Obliterate” taken in what sounds like one breath. Through it all, Gonzalez seems to muster every negative thought he’s ever had, evoking feelings of inner turmoil, misanthropy, and betrayal in manners both disturbing and cathartic. In short, Gonzalez’s vocals are the lifeblood in Cordyceps’ candidemia-ridden arteries.

The blood runs somewhat cold, however, when crafting standout moments. No song is a stinker, and runtimes never drag, but the formula of chug-chug-trem-GUUUUUURGLE dilutes eventually. While the closer “Regret” is as good as the opener “Filth” in a vacuum, it’s not as engaging forty minutes later. The band also over-employs start-stop breaks to transition between movements, which are effective on early tracks like “Filth” but become predictable with overuse. The few atmospheric bookends on Hell Inside, like the piano-closing “Suffocating,” feel superfluous. Rather than merging one novel idea with another, they just bridge one onslaught of death metal to the next. Generously, they can be seen as breaks for your ears, an unfortunate necessity given the album’s strident, undynamic mix. It’s got its memorable moments – the singular synth tone in “Diseased Mind,” Gonzalez’s declaration that he’s “GONNA BLOW [his] FUCKING BRAINS OUT” in “Murder All” and the aforementioned toilet deluge from “Obliterate” – but Cordyceps found something good on Hell Inside and perhaps did too much of it.

Hell Inside is a buckshot to the brain of visceral death goodness, an unbending divulsion into mankind’s worst tendencies. Though I don’t think it’ll draw in many who aren’t already sold on brutal death metal, its fans are sure to embrace this entry into the subgenre. Monotony issues notwithstanding, Hell Inside is a twistedly fun listen, and hopefully Cordyceps will one day take the rage and talent they brought here and turn it into something even more adventurous and memorable that’ll grow fungi in my brain. After what they did in there already, there’s room enough for a new growth.

Rating: Good
DR: 5 | Review Format: V0 MP3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Website: uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/cordycepslv | Instagram.com/cordycepslv
Release Date: July 25, 2025

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