Welcome to the grotesque, folks. Allow me to introduce you to MELTING FLESH, a Colombian Brutal Death Metal band obsessed with bringing you the best in gory music today. “Good Addiction Butchery” is the trio’s debut album – which calls Dan’s Crypt its home – and is a pretty good exemplification of the style, though this isn’t a far departure from what countless others have done and are doing.

Naturally, the cover art is littered with a gruesome scene in which bloodied carcasses are being violated by some giant blue thing, their logo is tough to read and misogynistic song titles include “Fetus Head Collection,” “Mastectomy With A Chainsaw,” and “Vaginal Devourer.” The music, along the same lines, treads the oft-travelled path of Brutal Death. So, it stands to reason that “Good Addiction Butchery” begins speedily and assaults the listener with guttural vocals (deep, pig-like growls) and liberal use of distortion. These gentlemen aren’t as refreshing as labelmates SACRIFICIO, but the grooves in numbers such as “Mastectomy With A Chainsaw” and the reverb-loving “Fucking Colostomy” are surprisingly adept. There’s an underground feel to the production; I don’t take issue with hardly any of it except for the cymbals, which sound tinnier than I usually prefer. Don’t let the mp3 fool you, though, cause its production isn’t up to snuff with that of its predecessors. Still, these thirty-three minutes are quite eviscerating, as long as one doesn’t think too heavily.

Dan’s Crypt is proving to be a rising upstart within the Brutal Death subgenre and MELTING FLESH handle themselves with aplomb. “Good Addiction Butchery” is a fine listen – somewhat mindless I might add – but it’s not doing anything to redefine the subgenre. If you can accept its drawbacks, then I predict you’ll enjoy this well enough. (Online February 17, 2006)