Ex Dimentia, The Red Mass
Originally released in 2009, New Jersey’s Ex Dimentia have been pushing their latest album, The Red Mass, pretty heavily this past Summer. I, for one, am glad that their renewed efforts in getting this album heard finally fell my way. The Red Mass is full of chunky, raw death metal with an old school vibe complete with a thick and insidiously dark atmosphere.
“Shadow In The Chapel” gets things started with your prototypical horror/sci-fi movie sound clip before finally exploding out of your speakers nearly a minute in with unrelenting, barbaric drums and evil guitars. The vocals are deep and guttural, but carry a decent cadence that only aids in giving the band’s music a decent flow. Musically, we’re looking at old school death metal bands like Autopsy and Cannibal Corpse to name a few. “Mud and Blood” even features Autopsy’s Chris Reifert on guest gurgles as these New Jersey natives pummel and bludgeon their way through this up-tempo beast of a song. This song is gnarly as fuck. “Liquid Flesh” has a bit of a Cannibal Corpse vibe to it, but isn’t a direct mimic as it plunders your skull with thick riffs and pile driving drums.
Throughout the disc you’ll be greeted with the claw-end of a rusty, brain encrusted hammer as these guys ratchet up the the violence periodically with explosive blasts and aggressive delivery. “The Radiant Ravenous” is just such a song. Featuring Splatterhouse’s Parasitic Tim on guest vocals, the track starts off with another brief sound clip before getting down to business with the unrelenting pace of a stalking psychopath with freshly used axe in hand. The song is violent and evil. “Splattervision: Channel 2” features another guest vocalist in the form of Impaled’s Ross Sewage. It’s a decent song that carries the same violent themes and overall vibe that the first half of the album has already been slinging like random body parts out the back end of a very busy wood chipper.
The remaining half of The Red Mass is pretty solid with the somewhat standard “Belial The Basket Case,” the thick and chunky title track and the Cannibal Corpse fueled “Dead! Nude! Dancers!” That last track is prefaced by a fairly long sound clip, but it’s worth slogging through to get to the rotten meat of the song. The only downside to the last half of the album, is the rather pedestrian Venom cover. It’s not really needed as I think “Dead! Nude! Dancers!” was a strong enough song on it’s own to close out The Red Mass.
At any rate, if you’re in the mood for dark, old school death metal that seethes with zombies and rotting flesh, then this is the album for you. The relatively lo-fi production fits the band’s sound perfectly as they thunder through churning riffs, animalistic rhythms and vicious growls. Ex Dimentia haven’t hit one out of the park with their latest effort, but any fan of death metal in general should find a little morsel or two to enjoy within the churning mass of necrotic tissue that these guys have served up, hot and steaming.