Bowel Stew - Debridement

Debridement is (I believe) the third album by Italian goregrind / death metal squad Bowel Stew. Whilst Debridement owes more to brutal death metal than any goregrind record, it manages to maintain that authentic air of dodgy pathological madness that is often lost in the 'brutalism' of much death metal. Bowel Stew is a nasty band, and whilst the cover art might not be a real picture of disgusting gore, you know they mean business with this sound.

Debridement contains 9 tracks, most around the 2 minute mark, although due to the composition style they actually sound a lot longer to me, but perhaps my brain is just geared this way when it comes to death metal. Unfortunately, a lot of underground brutal death ends up sounding like complete mush, but Debridement retains some semblance of clarity in the production job despite the usual murky furore of blasting gore madness. 

Probably the best sounding Bowel Stew recording I've come across so far, and well worth a look for fans of both brutal death metal and goregrind.

PS I'd like to apologise for the ridiculously shitty low quality album artwork - Blogger crushes the fucking life out of my uploads and I can't put "risky" stuff like this on my Photobucket account because it gets taken down. All the more reason to move to permanent personal hosting! Stay tuned!

Splatter Whore / Bowel Stew - Split 7"

I absolutely love Splatter Whore. It's a bit sad they have gone rather quiet these days, but their first album remains one of my favourite goregrind (or grind'n'roll!) releases ever. I wasn't as fussed on the second album (with an almost completely different line up, I believe) but this split 7" with Bowel Stew showcases material that displays openly the transition between records. The sound is fantastic and extremely well produced. The band are tighter than a virgin's pootang and the vocals are an absolutely insane watery hell. If you love stuff like Rompeprop you need to check out this band.

 

Long-running gore legends Bowel Stew don't quite reach the heights of awesomeness of Splatter Whore, but it's still a good effort. Pairing the filth of goregrind up with something altogether more brutal death metal, Bowel Stew blast and gurgle through seemingly endless amounts of untitled songs (or is that just one long song?). The vocals are nuts, just like Splatter Whore, but the main put-off for me here is the snare sound, which is quite possibly the most annoying thing on the planet. I've not heard a more irritating and puzzling snare drum sound since The Berzerker's rather flaccid The Reawakening album.

 

As far as I know this isn't too difficult to obtain on black vinyl, although the brown vinyl is only limited to 100 copies and is long sold out, obviously. This was put out a good few years ago now on Rotten Roll Rex from Spermany. Check out the online store! Unfortunately there are no links for this release on YouTube. 

Bowel Stew / Tu Carne - Split 7"

Another one of my first ever 7" purchases. This time, horrible, disgusting goregrind, of course! This is the Bowel Stew split 7" with Tu Carne, released in 2004 on the no longer active American label Murder The World. The cover is a bit fucked up, if your not a gore-hound be prepared to be a bit shocked.

Both bands offer up noisy passages of goregrind, Tu Carne are probably a bit more organised than the sludgy, liquid putridity of Bowel Stew. There is something about Bowel Stew's material that is somewhat inconsistent. Perhaps there has been lots of line up changes? I don't know, I'm not that well educated about their existence. This is definitly for fans of this niche genre only, I can't see it appealing to many others. Still, great horrible music!