I love me a bit of Death Metal, and there is a vast field of it out there right now for us all to wade through, some good, some shite, some with different angles on it and some just so plain out fucking weird that you could barely label it so. But some do and that is fine by me – enjoy what you will; who am I to judge? In recent years the field has become very choked. The question then comes down of course to who does it better, who has the enthusiasm and vigour to keep the dream alive? Yeah, sure you can call any band Old School but are they, I mean, really? Are they keeping the fire burning so to speak? Are they even fucking worthy?
A few have sprung to mind of late: Fulci with their magnificent “Tropical Sun”. Yeah, sure; it may be some sort of an homage to someone, but it pretty much grabs you by the testicles (or other parts to be fair) and doesn’t let go until you are on the ground, screaming like a bitch. Cannibal Corpse with their “A Skeletal Domain” and yeah, sure, a heap of people will be whinging about me not mentioning some of their earlier stuff, but for me it was a massive return to form. And now I present to you an Australian band that are plain and simply here to teach everyone a lesson in violence. You already fucking know who they are, or you will right now: Puncture Wound.
These lads haven’t been together for that long in terms of what some of you may call the greats, but in this short period of time they seem to have not only grasped the concept of what great Death Metal is all about, they have decided to skull fuck us all relentlessly with their take on it. “And what is that take,” you may ask? Sheer menacing sonic brutality of the highest order. After shooting a warning shot over the bow with 2017’s “Brutal Butchery of Bargain Basement Bodies”, they give us their first full length, “Complete Carnage of Coagulating Cacophonous Corpses”, and I can only say two things. First off, I hope they are not following the Morbid Angel way of naming albums using the alphabet, or the next one may be called “Deadly Dudes with Dicks in Ditches Drowning Dugongs”. The second thing is that this is right up in my top five of the year, punching on with some real heavyweights, and I mean hitting hard, and I am not even going to bother telling you my favourite song because it simply does not exist. This is a package of relentless murder that you just need to let pummel you into the concrete and then get up and say “fuck yes”, and then do it all over again.
The scariest part is, if they can do this on their first full length, what in the living Bejesus will they hit us with next time around? There is a very frightening thought. Fantastic Aussie Death Metal, and you bloody well need this in your life. It’s taken me a fair bit longer to get around to writing this than I would have liked, but as has been explained, it doesn’t make any fucking difference how long it takes anyone to get around to checking this out, because it isn’t going anywhere in a hurry. Trust me, you just need to get onto it, and that’s all that matters.
Rating 5/5
https://puncturewound.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/puncturewoundosdm/
The Metal Wanderlust 