Review Summary: “Swift, technical and sick brutality…15 songs with original structures in the innovative approach!” …their words, not mine.
Heading into
Gruesome Forms of Distorted Libido, I was expecting to be greeted by 22 minutes of generoslam with about half of that being porn samples. Much to my surprise, I found pretty damn good Disgorge (US)/Devourment influenced brutal death…and only two samples!
Perverse Dependence are a Russian band who very much play US-way brutal death similar to many of their California and Texas contemporaries. They claim that they don’t intend to mimic their influences, so at the very least their aspirations are in the right place, but they’re not quite successful in this area. Their main inspiration is Disgorge and you won’t need to listen to more than one song to figure that out.
Slams are fairly abundant on the album, but they aren’t overwhelming since they don’t last very long (nothing on the album lasts very long for that matter). Each song pretty much follows the same rough pattern: fast Disgorge riff, Devourment-styled breakdown, and then a couple more Disgorge riffs. It’s not a groundbreaking formula but they execute it rather well, which, as shown by less accomplished bands who attempt the same, is apparently harder than it seems.
Although no song passes the two-minute mark the album isn’t grind, which leads to its ultimate flaw: that the songs just aren’t long enough given the context of their genre. This then leads to no song having much of an identity. In fact the only two songs that I can distinguish are the one with the sample (
*** as a Lubricant), and the outro…which is a sample. As a whole though, the album flows nicely and doesn’t overstay its welcome; it is only 20 minutes long after all.
With the over-the-top song titles, typical "toilet bowl" vocals and meaty production, Perverse Dependence serves as little more than ammo for brutal death detractors, and while it won’t draft any converts, it does serve as a worthwhile release for fans of the genre.
The band shows a lot of potential and with a little bit of maturity, in both song structure and subject matter, they could very well become a force to be reckoned with on the scene. If you’re starved for a new Disgorge album (which doesn’t seem to be in the near future) this might just hold you over, if only for a short while.
Highlights
As far as I’m concerned the whole album is one 20-minute song, take your pick.
