Street Cannibal Gluttony/rehearsal 05/2019 consists of the Cannibal Gluttony demo and two new songs played in rehearsal,”Sadistic Drive” and a cover of Discharge’s “Maimed and Slaughtered”. A short release clocking in at just over seventeen minutes but shows the progression from a band alternating between Demilich like riffs and rapid fire Grindcore, to a band combining both in a smooth melange.

The obvious influence is Autopsy through the heavily distorted guitar tone, the barrage of different voices assaulting the listener and the trademark incredibly slow percussive dirge that assaults the listener at full force. Other notable influences include the first wave of British hardcore punk as seen by the Discharge cover and Finnish Death metal. The fast punkier riffs flow into the Finnish melodies before then alternating with the Autopsy like moments. The two new songs find the band combining the whole in a seamless manner while blurring the line between their influences and resembling what Carbonized did on their first album.

“The Morbid Creep” passes the three minute mark by not showing any fear in fully exploring the slower Autopsy like sections and building large amounts of tension before reintroducing the twisted Finnish melody and reiterating it before ending on technically impressive and dizzying final variation of that melody that concludes the song perfectly. At other times the band will end on a standard cathartic release consisting of power chords played at fast speeds that works sufficiently well but lacks the sense of finality that a more twisted ending would provide. The newer songs work in the same way though they are more streamlined in comparison as all the ideas are integrated into the Grindcore skeleton. The tempo changes are less drastic and the Finnish melodies are integrated into the riffs in a tail and head format. “Disease Ridden Pervert” takes the notions present in “The Morbid Creep” yet doesn’t separate each section precisely as all the influences blur into one which allows the band more freedom in creating deeper riff mazes that are still rudimentary at this stage. Due to the more constant nature of the music here, this gives Sadistic Drive the freedom to create short riff cycles within the songs and then progressing to another set of riffs but at the cost of settling into a singular idea and pushing it for all its worth in the style of Autopsy.

The evolution is interesting because the melodic language is maintained and so are most of the ideas in regards to arrangement. The progression in style is very typical for Death metal bands but overly streamlining the process is generally a symptom for a lack of ideas which doesn’t seem to be the case here. The band should combine both approaches on their first album and could do with longer compositions in general as they have the sufficient number of ideas and avoid the trap of copy-pasting Demilich, Demigod and Adramelech riffs but using the Finnish scale to create their own melodies. The true genius of this band is using such melodies in a Grindcore context. A huge surprise considering the banal titles and the overt worship of Autopsy’s aesthetics but a great sense of composition is easily noticed. At DMU we hope to see the reconciliation of the two styles present here on an album as this is already a contender for best release of the year.

Tags: Carbonized, Finnish Death Metal, Grindcore, sadistic drive, street cannibal gluttony: rehearsal 05/2019