HAEMORRHAGE — Morgue Sweet Home

HAEMORRHAGE

Morgue Sweet Home (2002)

Label: Morbid Records/CD-Maximum
★★★★½ 9/10
By Scorpio

Track Listing

  1. Mortuary Riot
  2. Oozing Molten Gristle
  3. Midnight Mortician
  4. Virulent Mass Necropsy
  5. Funeral Carnage
  6. Obnoxious (Surgeon Of The Dead)
  7. Exhuming Impulse
  8. Unlock The Morgue
  9. Sublime Anatomy Of Revenge
  10. Morgue Sweet Home
  11. Mangled Surgical Epitaph
  12. The Forensic Requiems
  13. Dirge For The Sick
  14. Intravenous Molestation Of Obstructionist Arteries (O-pus IV)

What could serve as a suitable home for Spanish grindcore maniacs HAEMORRHAGE? A morgue, of course. It is their beloved dwelling — seen through the bloodied eyes of their new victims — that they depicted on the cover of their fourth album. Inside you'll find corpse-themed lyrics splattered with blood and black-and-white illustrations of human innards and the hospitable host of this charming morgue. In one of these masterpieces (the kind students typically draw during lectures), the mortician invites you to drop by his humble shelter and appreciate (or even experience firsthand) his nice new set of cute little kitchen knives. Beautiful stuff!

From the very first sounds, listeners experience involuntary headbanging along with bouts of "bass-drum-itis" syndrome. These symptoms don't leave you for all 36 minutes across 14 tracks. Despite the seemingly chaotic nature of the material, you can easily distinguish the instruments. On the title track, you can even make out the sounds of an old piano — apparently that's how the good doctor spends his leisure time.

For those who still classify grindcore as metal, I'll say that the Spaniards are more than capable of dispelling that notion. Their connection to metal amounts to little more than some brutal death metal riffs, but the core motifs in every song prevent HAEMORRHAGE's creation from being classified as metal. The Spaniards can confidently be called grindcore classics. If you want to get acquainted with this brutal style, this record is as good a starting point as any.