Urogenital Macrophage
Perversion and Sickness Destroy the Human Race Review
After listening to scores and scores of slamming death metal albums, none engaged me more than this debut offering by the Chilean band Urogenital Macrophage, which is called Perversion and Sickness Destroy the Human Race.
I would like to have been at the band meeting when these Chileans decided upon the name Urogenital Macrophage, and I wonder at what other names were in competition with Urogenital Macrophage and lost out to the name Urogenital Macrophage (though I actually like this name more than something like Afflictive Emasculation or Begging for Incest which don’t even create a solid mental image).
If you can get past the drumming that somehow sounds too fake to be real (eg. the cymbals) and too clunky to be fake (eg. the bass drums), this album is at the very top of the slam pile. The vibe is dirty—Goatlord dirty—something that is arguably enhanced by the loose drumming—but as with all slam bands I like, these guys can write distinct riffs (not just pinches and chugs), musical vocal refrains and most importantly, songs that go somewhere.
The album opener is a bit more ambitious and longer than most UM songs, and it’s also the only one that loses my interest—I think they tried too hard here and (in what seems like the Devourment mode) and just packed too much stuff in an effort to impress, rather than do what they do best—pummel, pinch, rock and develop strong main ideas. Still, the song Aberrant Hemophilical Menstruation proves them capable of navigating multiple ideas and tempos—including a brief foray into rather chaotic blastbeats—while keeping things cohesive and grooved, though they shine most with simpler tunes like Colitis Cocktail, which culminates in deep-pocket headbanging (excuse me…slamming) glory at its end. Singer Hector Medina is one of the most musical vocalists I’ve heard in this style, not because he changes things up from growls to croaks to squeals, which he does quite capably, but because his ideas are musically interesting—rhythmically and in terms of timbre and pitch—and he don’t smother the music, as do so many of these guttural guys. Take note, Bodysnatch and Human Rejection vocalists: Respect the riffs.
Overall, the vibe here is somewhere between recent Kraanium and the aforementioned Goatlord. At least half of the album is devoted to slams, midpaced and fairly slow, though UM mostly refrains from the super slow stuff, and the album opener is the only song that isn't solid on the entire disc. If you don't mind a little bit of sloppiness, investigate this top-tier, filthy, headbanging, slamming death metal excretion.