MUCUPURULENT - Bloodstained Blues CD

5th album of this great German grind'n'roll/death metal band!!! For fans of DEAD, CBT, ROMPEPROP, BLOOD DUSTER, STOMA, AHUMADO GRANUJO!

Metal Archives:
It's no secret that I'm a completely unreasonable fan of the rock and roll/death/grind style that became popular around the early to mid-'00s. Mucupurulent plays this style and nothing else on 'Bloodstained Blues', an album which fits neatly alongside the catalog of Neuropathia, if not even more dedicated to ultra-heavy, grooving riffs and bloodsplattered presentation. Mucupurulent's music is just as heavily derived from Pantera as it is from Gut and Squash Bowels, and the combination works beautifully: this is an album you can revisit time and time again without ever tiring of it.
If you've heard any other bands in this vein, you know what to expect: a lot of midtempo death rock featuring churning, crunchy riffs like a mix of Celtic Frost, Pantera, and Cock And Ball Torture, a snappy, syncopated drum performance, and a low bark for vocals. Mucupurulent is probably more rock and roll than any of the other bands in this vein out there; very rarely does a blast beat emerge from the morass of groove riffs and stomping beats, and it always gets your attention when it does. Most of the time, Mucupurulent is content to play around with the absurdly heavy spin on rock they seem to have mastered. The production helps it out: the filthy, very heavy guitar tone and sardonic, poppy drums are a credit to the producer.
Admittedly, the band does tend to repeat themselves over the course of the album; Mucupurulent's southern-fried riffing style is something of a one-trick pony, but the trick is executed so well it's hard to really complain. More variation could have been used, though- while there are a handful of blasting moments, the vast, vast majority of the album is a plodding midtempo, which gets a bit old after the first half of the album. The band does perform admirably in extending the life on these tracks through intelligent riff and rhythm variation, but no matter what, it begins to drag around track 6.
Despite this, I still love the album and listen to it every other day. 'Bloodstained Blues' is simply too heavy to ignore: it has some of the most neck-snapping grind 'n' roll riffs I've ever heard, and I have to heartily recommend this to fans of Neuropathia or other stalwarts of the Polish goregrind scene. The band could use a few more musical ideas, but 'Bloodstained Blues' is still a very strong volley from one of Germany's older exports.