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ACETONE
Left To Rot EP

Self-released (2025)
Rating: 7/10

“Terror, torture, fear… Terror, torture, pain… Terror, torture, death!…” and repeat and repeat. And so Canadian death metal mob Acetone announces itself to the metal world with their debut EP, Left To Rot; five tracks of unapologetic no frills death metal that plods and scurries without a care in the world.

Opener ‘Mind Trap’ is stark, stodgy and fusty, harkening back to the early 90s with its heavy set growls and stripped back riffs. I’m surprised such mundane grooves can be so appealing, but on Acetone trudge like a stubborn yet ever decreasing army that refuses to give up. Strangely, the production is airtight to the extent that the instrumentation just doesn’t breath. With each dour riff, each plodding beat and each bass line one feels as if they are in a pitch black coffin gasping for breath.

‘Visceral Putrefaction’ is wonderfully bland, the riffs morbidly reserved and the vocals just miserable in their chesty vibrations. As with the opening cut there is repetition in the lyrics as the word “intestine” gets mentioned six times. This is the sort of basic but burly death grunting that emerged by the bucket load after 1990, and while back then such mouldy rants eventually ran out of steam, Acetone is proof that there’s still life in the old dog yet.

“Life’s fading away, sight’s fading away. Life… death,” growls Dave Jobin on ‘Fade’ to the steady rhythmic grind. Further examples of such monolithic mud traipsing come to the fore within the dank realms of ‘Internal Bleeding’. The band doesn’t shy away from speedier flashes but as ‘Brain Breath’ rigorously rumbles at varying tempos and melodies I’m still amazed by the fact that such plodding charms my soul.

Reliable is the word here, so if you crave the bog standard within the genre I’d pick this up. Null, void, dry and as stiff as a corpse… I like it.

Neil Arnold

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