Review Summary: An album by a band who studied more Cannibal Corpse t-shirt designs than actual music.
I was going to refrain from talking about Pissgrave’s name and
Suicide Euphoria’s album cover. Both talking points are a little obvious and seek to merely offer an easy segue into the band’s “brutal” sound. However, if I were not to bring up either, there wouldn’t be a whole lot left to discuss.
Pissgrave are their name.
Suicide Euphoria is its album art. The imagery is the music and appalling nature are the band. A gory and shocking picture of putrefaction are all that defines this raw death metal band. Were one to strip away all of this what would be left is an embarrassingly pale and juvenile attempt at contrived heaviness. Pissgrave are the semioticians by way of the worst of the
Saw franchise. They are youth who spent more time studying Cannibal Corpse t-shirt designs than the actual constructs of death metal.
Suicide Euphoria is a garage death metal band playing aimlessly and bored; an amateur attempt that scratches the outer most surface of the genre while only capturing the aesthetic. Chopped and screwed it’s haggardly pieced together with an ear achingly on-the-nose production. It’s a shame that the songs themselves are so hammered together because Pissgrave offer up some cool ideas. Occasionally the album comes across as a metal album with the heart of 90s hardcore, with the vocal meshing standing out as exceptionally interesting. Underneath this is always something distractedly banal. The riffs are dead in the water and flat nature of each song feels like an outline rather than a full picture.
Pissgrave are an annoyance of the highest caliber. Death metal in name only,
Suicide Euphoria isn’t an emblem of genre purity, nor is it a brave new direction. Its forced brutality and rawness, all a façade to cover up a lack of ingenuity. The album will appeal to those who are easy to fool as it’s custome built for listeners who revel in a trash heap in which obscenity and perversion are unaware of the phrase “tongue in cheek.” Likewise, the album is perfect for genre tourists; listeners who come to be shocked by metal’s deepest and grimiest parts. Regardless, Pissgrave aren’t for everyone. Frankly, the band aren’t much for anyone. Even as a novelty.
