Death metal is an underrepresented style on our site, so I figured I’d just grab randomly the first album starting with an A from the pile I have for the genre. The choice fell on Anthropophagous from North Central Massachusetts. Spoiled Marrow is the band’s debut EP.

The opener Trial by Fist and Stone is actually pretty cool with the sound akin to that of thrashing in a sticky thick swamp. The low frequencies of Trial by Fist and Stone are dialed up in a mix so much, I swear they can move guts inside of me. With the crazy bacchanalia of leads, Trial by Fist and Stone devolves into chaos and Anthropophagous are not sure whether to speed up or decelerate. From there, the band is content to continue living in the swamp, but the creature Anthropophagous invoked is lower energy than on Trial by Fist and Stone and not so beastly. Very low, beyond the coffin voice is how the swamp brute sounds, but beyond cool opening guitar tone glimpse (or is it base?) on the self-titled track, the beast is somewhat stuck.

If you are not afraid of chaotic rumbling Memento Mori and Illness Enthroned will continue piling on, for the total of 16 min, picking up tempo somewhat on Memento Mori, and faster portions, like Trial by Fist and Stone and Memento Mori, seem to be Anthropophagous’ shinier moments.

Whether the band is out there to be serious or have fun with all this death metal is unknown. The moniker - preferring humans for food - tells me this is somewhat tongue in cheek, and it shows.