It all started with scraping sound… too close to be beneath the floorboards, too low to be outside the window. An aching, horrible mystery washed over me in panicked sweat ’til the pinching began in my left ear. A chittering buzzed loud causing my head to convulse as some manner of occult eight-legged patter preceded, a divining ritual to find the exact right place to set its fangs. As I collapsed into death, a dream, or merely fainted the drum did not burst outright but its watery decay was impossible to ignore when I awoke as profound septic drainage indicated my flesh was lost and soon my mind with it. This curse from the graveyard beast’s microscopic minions to the flesh of my skull is an abomination borne from Valparaíso, Chile-based death metal quintet Putrid Yell who’ve patiently stalked the public ear ’til their first strike was precisely readied. ‘Consuming Aberration‘ is the point where sinister bestial invasion of the flesh meets a more than willing chainsaw, revved and readied to thrash its way through the splatter with murderous purpose on this intense debut. The keen-eared gnawers among us who’d appreciate where late 80’s Scandinavian death metal meets pan-American death-thrashing bestial ancestry will find a feast of greasiest, most ancient marrow to indulge herein.

As is the case with many of the best bands emerging from the Chilean underground today Putrid Yell have taken their time in developing their sound within several minor releases which span about a dozen years to date. Formed in Viña del Mar circa 2011 with leadership from guitarist Rod Nihilist (Phantasmagore) the major stylistic focus of the band was obvious enough in conjuring the horror-obsessed, graveyard grimed-over feeling of late 80’s Swedish death metal, this much was clear on their second demo tape (‘When Life Has Ceased‘, 2013) as it seemed a major fascination with Nihilist, Interment, and Nirvana 2002 (among others) lead the charge to start. This is still a major part of their sound but Putrid Yell is not such a typical band in that style if we dig a bit deeper. A split 7″ with Eaten Alive reinforced their original sound in 2014 but it was a split with Profaner (‘The Beginning of Mortuary Decay‘, 2016) two years later that seemed to signal the band were ready with some of their own developments, enough for a full-length. That’d been the first release where we’d hear Sexphemous‘ drumming kick into some more violent sidesteps, an approach which landed somewhere in between the Swedish death ride of Soulrot and the more thrashing and blasting edge of Horrifying. Unfortunately their lead guitarist passed in an accident in 2017 and it’d taken about a year to regroup and finish plans for a debut LP. ‘Consuming Aberration‘ was actually recorded in 2018 and has been brutally delayed due to pandemonium anno MMXX and personal circumstance since.

Having sat with the album for countless listens at this point, one major reason for such patience and persistence with putting it out is that ‘Consuming Aberration‘ rules as it manifests a timeless death metal style which is not steeped in the urgency of trendiness and doesn’t need to be rushed out. Also, this classic sound comes alongside a personal (but subtle) shake given to the expected foundations of Scandinavian/North American styled death metal; It wasn’t clear what the leap from their demo and split releases to a full-length might look like, though the Asphyx cover from their 2016 split seemed to suggest a more aggressive approach and… this turns out to be true. In fact it seems the quest for late 80’s death metal took them in two complimentary directions: Riff-obsessed death/thrash metal out of Europe in that time period (see: Repugnant) or, the South American abysm that’d helped to influence its more violent exceptions to the rule ’til about 1992. ‘Consuming Aberration‘ does kick off with a general ‘Clandestine‘-esque rip to its first impression, albeit with less of a heavy rock swing to it, but we can quickly look beyond the Boss HM-2 cake of the Swedish death metal influenced guitar tone and begin to see shades of ‘Consuming Impulse‘ alongside early extreme thrash metal inspiration when chipping through each song. Think along the lines of Mega Slaughter but with a tinge of Expulser thrusting about beneath the grind of the guitars here and there as we step into opener “The Search” and go from there.

The bulk of the songs on this LP are reworked from demo or split releases, providing ideal and official versions of most every piece they’d been developing since 2013 and in this sense we are getting the absolute best culmination of what Putrid Yell have been about for quite a long time. Granted it is a snapshot of their songcraft from the space of five years (2013-2018) but this is still entirely commendable, seeing the evolution of each of these songs into this ideal format is inspired and they all feel like they’ve been considered, it all counts and flows together with proper intensity. “Desire of Death” is a particularly important example of this, a piece which dates back to their first demo and has seemingly been included on every minor release in different versions up to this point. One of the longer pieces on the album this one features their rushed-at blasts, a grinding hot punkish verse riff and crypt-stirring lead melody in its bridge to bring it all together. While the jaded Swedish death metal fan might find these elements as tropes to some degree there is enough of Putrid Yell‘s own signature developed in this piece that it stands out as one of the most important of Side A. A “this is what they’re all about statement, more-or-less. I’d personally felt like the album only got better from there and specifically starting with the faster-paced thrashing cut of “Re-Animator”, every piece beyond that point is golden.

Clear yet critically underground production values per Cristian Leon @ Lion’s Roar Studio, warm yet chthonian mastering from Damien Herring @ Subterranean Watchtower Studio go a long way towards lending the right feeling to ‘Consuming Aberration‘ while still revealing a dynamic, personalized sound. Of note up front is the bass guitar tone which introduces “Charred Corpses”, a point of perfection per this type of death metal with just enough of a growl added to the atmosphere and a moldering presence which holds up beautifully next to the mean coffin-lid scratched at rhythm guitars. Though it appears to be one of the more typical d-beaten chunking Swedeath songs on the album to start we eventually get a few extended blasts and a jogging Asphyx-esque transition into the last third all of which which contribute to what I consider a particularly fine example of how Putrid Yell put their classics informed sound to good use, even including a bass solo as a finishing touch to the song. This is just one of several examples of how these folks find a way to not do the usual shit with this sound. Too many groups coast on the spectacle of distortion and overdone Dismember riffs, a major complaint of mine if you’ve followed my taste over the last decade or so, and these folks expertly kick their way around most of the usual ideas for an album that is always on its toes, turning the corner well before they land upon anything too typical.

Not one of “them”, one of us… — Where Putrid Yell go over the top and touch upon greatness for my taste is within the generally ancient sounding pieces like (another early staple) “Indescribable Evil Instinct“, which has a clear touch of inspiration from ‘Morbid Visions‘-era Sepultura under its hood, the perfect compliment to the moldy ‘Severed Survival‘ infested Nihilist-esque grind of their sound. Side B is generally where the most burnt, thrashing and memorable stuff happens on ‘Consuming Aberration‘ and to the point that I’d found myself starting with the second half whenever cracking into it, typically leaving the full listen on repeat from there. Every single piece on the second half of this record absolutely smokes with “Process Through Death” being another personal standout favorite and closer “Wrenching Putrid Yell” closing the album with a spastic, rotten bang. The listening experience is eventful, full of unexpected movement and a thrashing deathlike pace which keeps movement energetic and frenzied throughout.

With ‘Consuming Aberration‘ this persistent Chilean death metal crew have made good on years of work put into this beast with a properly representative, serious but still underground death metal record which speaks to the Putrid Yell way. While I do think the nuance of their craft will eventually speak louder than their stylized distortion pedal usage there is some threat that folks will hear that guitar tone and assume this us plain Swedeath worship but in fact anything beyond a casual listen will reveal a thousand-armed thrashing beast beneath the waves. This is the sort of album that wasn’t so much a grower but a lagoon of black water, a record that is much deeper than it seems and bears all sorts of monstrous innards when given a serious exploratory dive. A very high recommendation.

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