Gnawed – Purge C40
Maniacal Hatred

Heavy is the dose for the day when I popped in Gnawed’s Purge cassette. I had been exposed to a few tracks here and there but it didn’t properly prepare me for the full-frontal assault that is Purge.

Purge is a pummeling attack of rhythmic synth pulses much recalling the classic death industrial sound of Mörder Machine and even with similar flanger-induced vocal hatred. Although Gnawed seems to enjoy the low-end a little bit more with less synth fuckery in the higher registers.

The tape is quite consistent all the way through but Gnawed sticks to a formula that works. This is heavy as hell and each bass-pulse feels like an orgasmic rift through my body. The tracks seems to evolve quite nicely while keeping a strict and steady rhythm, unrelenting and uncompromising. Gnawed’s vocals always seem to come back just when you thought they were gone, thrashing out with intense energy and wrath.

One very small complaint is that the tracks all use similar synth sounds, but this is just as much a strength as it is a weakness because the production is absolutely bowel-inducing and the compositions are consistently one-upping themselves into the next track. An excellent release and testament to the new school of power electronics.

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