Hailing from my neck of the woods in Seattle, Washington Caustic Wound are a upcoming extreme metal band featuring members from Fetid, Cerebral Rot, Mortiferum and Magrudergrind. With 2020’s debut full-length of Death Posture, Caustic Wound‘s style is very reminiscence of the mid 90’s of death metal but also throwing elements of grindcore in the mixture. Think of Napalm Death meets World Downfall era of Terrorizer with hints of downtuned production Swansong Carcass and IVth Crusade Bolt Thrower esque style of extreme metal and you get Caustic Wound in one summary. 26 minutes of carnage, brutality, destruction and eviscerated madness with over 14 well polished, executed and dynamic tracks that offers punishing and aggressive structures just awaiting you to hear it yourself.
But the music here is raw, dirty, abrasive and almost cavernous in a way where in today’s death metal scene such as Tomb Mold, Disma, Ritual Necromancy, Witch Vomit, Father Befouled, Undergang, Drawn And Quartered and Spectral Voice not all captured that old school death metal touch that worked so incredibly well and are fantastic bands in their own retrospective way, Caustic Wound on the other hand have a rather specific, technical, cohesive, and been a prolific act in the underground for quite sometime. Perhaps one of the most important components and aesthetics upon the album’s lyrical content and comprehensive leads these musicians have studied long and hard was these songs bring flair, style and progressive layers upon another where every lead from the instrumentals, vocals, production and devastating arrangements to the everlasting quality this record offers is truly amazing in every right possible.
Just take a look at songs such as Invisible Cell, Cataclysmic Gigaton, Ritual Trappings and Black Bag Asphyxiation for example where you can mix a perfect cocktail, stir up nice and slowly and then suddenly, the songs hit you so incredibly hard like a head on collision that made heartbeats pumping at loud volume where I’m almost listening to Repulsion due to the instrumentations have this filthiness, grindy, and Diabolical Conquest blast beat drum fillers brings you back to the earliest stages throughout the 1990’s. And while most grindcore and death metal bands tend to focus on the same copy and paste material that is often misleading to certain degree, Caustic Wound’s musical ability to recapture that essence throughout the earliest stages of extreme music really balanced and maintained such an effective narrative where no songs feel watered down or repetitive in my humblest opinion. Death Posture by Washington State’s Caustic Wound stands tall with a path of their own feet, imagery and artistic talent to create two of the deadliest genres of extreme metal today and intertwined itself to feature the most appropriate, symbolic, and dynamic releases of 2020.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
Review by Jake Butler
