Extremely Rotten – Zombification of the Masses (Gore House Productions, 2014)

If you’re into brutality, Southern California’s Gore House Productions have been killing it in 2014, putting out a slew of excellent brutal death metal, slam and goregrind releases with no end in sight.  Among their latest is Zombification of the Masses, a quickie EP from Florida’s Extremely Rotten, featuring two tracks of slamming brutal death metal.  Clocking in at just five minutes, it is the very definition of all killer, no filler.

Extremely Rotten’s sound is sludgy and ridden with filth, like something that slowly clawed its way out of the murky swamplands of their home state.  This is some of the darker, gnarlier sounding slam I’ve heard in a while, with a dense production scheme that’s suffocating even in small doses.  The two tracks are concise and tightly wound, hammering their way into your skull without overstaying their welcome.  It leaves you wanting more and in spite of its brevity does a great job of showcasing what the band does well.

Of course, this stuff is nothing without killer slams, and both the title track and “Feeding on Human Flesh” (mad props for the Nightbreed sample, by the way) are utterly devastating in this respect.  Extremely Rotten’s slams are impressively dynamic, seamlessly shifting tempos and degrees of heaviness.  The effort these guys put into making their slams as disgustingly heavy as possible is a breath of fetid air that does much to separate them from the brutal death metal masses.

Zombification of the Masses is a great introduction to the grotesque world of Extremely Rotten.  If these two tracks are anything to go by, their next full length will be an absolute monster and I look forward to hearing more from these guys.  In the meantime, you can grab the EP in both physical and digital formats (along with a t-shirt) from those fine folks at Gore House.

http://www.gorehouseproductions.com/