February 26, 2021| RELEASE REVIEW

Korpse – Insufferable Violence | Album Review


Do you like slam, brutal death metal or lyrics and music themed around some of the very worst acts humans have perpetrated on each other? If the answer to any of these questions (or all) is yes, Dutch metallers Korpse have something for you in the form of their third album, Insufferable Violence. To be absolutely clear, this isn’t a nice album. Lamenting the unspeakable war crimes committed during times of conflict, it’s grisly, unpleasant and downright filthy; often to a nauseating degree. But in the realms of death metal – especially the brutal sphere in which they ply their trade – it’s a badge of honour, and one the band wear with pride. Opener ‘PTSD’ utilises spoken word samples that discuss and dissect its title, accompanied by vicious sawing guitars and pounding drums. It’s angry and heavy, but it’s nothing compared to the assault the band unleash for the remainder of the album. The title track erupts out of ‘PTSD’ in a gory shower of blastbeats and cavernous vocals while ‘Disposable Underage Objects’ ends at a crawl, bludgeoning listeners over and over with its filth-encrusted guitar tone and pounding drums. ‘Genocidal Bloodbath’ takes the middle path; for the most part eschewing both speed and glacial slowness, serving up a platter of titanic grooves and squealing riffs while Sven van Dijk disgorges his spleen onto the track. There’s a surprising level of depth to the songwriting though, even though the subject matter and end result is nihilistic, low-brow slam of the highest (lowest?) order. Frenetic blasting sits alongside titanic grooves that dig their way into your skull and force your head to move and there’s a blackened edge in faster moments. At a scant thirty eight minutes, Insufferable Violence doesn’t mess around. Across its ten tracks, death metal collides with slamming almost deathcore breakdowns underpinned by drumming octopus Marten van Kruijssen, all while van Dijk’s wet, gurgling cavernous gutturals describe all manner of horrors. It’s safe to say, this isn’t an easy listen by any means. Korpse’s stated aim was to create the most brutal and extreme music they could, and by that metric, Insufferable Violence is a rip-roaring success. Korpse dish out aural violence, and laugh in the face of any who might dare suggest the addition of melody or catchiness, before disembowling them. It’s an unrelentingly brutal aural pummelling.This is slamming, brutal death metal that will do absolutely nothing to convert you to their slammy ways. But if you’re already a fan of the genre, this is a solid example of some of the gore-splattered best there is. Score: 7/10 Insufferable Violence is released February 26th via Unique Leader. Pre-order the record here.