Building on their rather good 2008 effort Get Dead Or Die Trying, The Rotted have been steadily fashioning a reputation of professionalism for themselves, last year’s covers EP Anarchogram showing another step on the band’s path away from the comedy gore-grind they were once known for as Gorerotted. Ad Nauseam continues with an added focus on the punk elements in their sound (the promo literature tags them ‘old school influenced D-Beat Death Metal) although this is very much the crunchy, expertly varied death metal blast that we’ve come to expect from the band. D-beats are present and correct, of course, allied with the post-Napalm Death riffage that gives a well-rounded deathgrind storm of violence, cut up into eleven bite-sized chunks that each give great headbangage value.

It seems less varied than Get Dead Or Die Trying on first listens, but once you’ve given your ears a chance to catch up The Rotted prove to have created quite a great album here. Tracks like opener Anarchogram Sun lumber around with grinding riffage, audible bass and distinctive vocal yowls and grunts cobbled together to make a surprisingly catchy assault on the senses. Surrounded By Skulls takes a vocal hook and builds it into a deranged rant, followed by the almost epic crunch of Non Serviam, which takes a leftwards turn into death/thrash territory partway through with a spinechilling gang shout. Unlike Get Dead... this album is more about the overall, rotten sound, rather than individual songs, although there are exceptions – if the zombie-like chorus to The House Of Bedlam doesn’t get you headbanging, then few things will. Apathy In The UK is unbelievably good, punky Napalm Death-esque rumbling with genuinely catchy riffs, and although Motörbastärds is a bit of an obvious way to take this sound, it doesn’t stop it being good.

I’ve followed this band long enough by now to know that there’s a good deal of talent there. The likes of The Hammer Of Witches are stirling death metal crunchers, but where Get Dead... does better than Ad Nauseam is in the implication that you’re listening to something genuinely original and exciting. As exciting and, well, good as this album is, it does leave you wishing that The Rotted had a little more ambition. Still, for what it is, Ad Nauseam is an excellent album, proving that British Death Metal has more than enough to offer the world, and that The Rotted deserve your ears for their enjoyable second album.