Review Summary: A true standout of its time, Sickening Erotic Fanaticism is everything a brutal album should be, and then some.
To be entirely honest, I began listening to this album with a closed mind. The cover art, title, and age of
Sickening Erotic Fanaticism all gave me the impression that this was yet another generic brutal death metal album. I was prepared to listen to a song or two, skip through the remaining tracks in an attempt to find quality, and move on when I found none. Upon hearing the first track, I knew I was entirely mistaken. This album stands proudly as one of the greatest death metal albums from the late 90s.
You wouldn’t be wrong calling
Sickening brutal death metal, but labeling it as such would seem to denote brutality as the driving force behind the album. Of course, there are crushing riffs with ultra-low guttural vocals and rapid drumming. At the same time, a plethora of riffs with tritones, dramatic tempo changes, and variety comprise the bulk of the unusually lengthy songs.
Sickening breaks standard convention without casting aside the stalwarts of the genre. For example, the opening track places its breakdowns directly in the middle of the fastest sections of the song, with no lead-in. The variety of the album is possibly its greatest aspect. Further proof of quality can be found in the crawling, atmospheric riff that brings this blood-drenched album to a close. At its lowest points, the album diminishes to only a mildly unique brutal death metal album with distinguished performances.
However, guitarists Joe Gordan and John Hartman have a propensity for writing unsettling sections, especially when referring to solos. Using track 5 as an example, the solo that can be heard at 2:47 feels off. The solo doesn’t progress unusually, but the notes played don’t match what would be expected, creating an eerie and uninviting atmosphere. When punctuated with Anthony Ipri’s skillful drumming, these passages present writing that is rarely replicated in the genre. An unusual amount of care was used when recording and mixing Ipri’s drums, as their impact and clarity far exceed many of
Sickening’s contemporaries. Furthering the presence of Ipri’s drums is that his performance includes so much more than blast beats and rapid double-bass drumming.
Sickening certainly contains a number of high-tempo sections, but during its multitude of mid-tempo and slower sections is when his drumming has the most creative freedom. With each hit being audible, Ipri’s excellent fills and patterns are fully realized. The drumming in brutal death metal albums doesn’t often stand out for aspects other than pure speed, yet Ipri managed to grab my attention on numerous occasions when not specifically listening for the drums.
Putting aside the exceptional instrumentals, vocalist Kelly Izquierdo provides a solid performance to back up his bandmates. For the majority of the album, Izquierdo belts out comprehensible death growls with power. Oftentimes though, he’ll accentuate his performance with a gravelly scream. This may be a relatively minor addition in the grand scheme of things, but its inclusion adds a healthy amount of flavoring to the mix. Since the vocals are intelligible, the lyrics become noteworthy for the album. While not exceptional, they’re written well enough to satisfy a listener’s desire for ghoulish lyrics.
What sets this album apart and brings it to the next level is the diversity and unusual songwriting. Breaking standard convention for most death metal albums like it, the average song length for this album is just over five and a half minutes. This brings
Sickening to almost an hour long runtime. With that being said, the diversity within each song somehow never manages to break off from the core sound of the album. Thankfully, the core sound is fantastic. If you enjoy a heavier form of death metal, then you owe it to yourself to give this album the same chance I did.
