{"id":68755,"date":"2018-01-05T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T00:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=68755"},"modified":"2018-04-30T19:52:57","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T19:52:57","slug":"album-review-serum-dreg-lustful-vengeance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-serum-dreg-lustful-vengeance\/","title":{"rendered":"SERUM DREG – Lustful Vengeance (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SERUM DREG
Lustful Vengeance<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nVrasubatlat \/ Invictus Productions (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Serum Dreg\u2019s unholy debut opus features six ear-shredding heaps of satanic junk that emerge three years after 2015\u2019s cult Impure Blood<\/em> demo. Such a cacophony is the construction of demonic warlord\u2019s Ad Infinitum (vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards) and Conjure Of Plague (vocals, drums).<\/p>\n

This fiendish brotherhood from Portland, Oregon began life in 2013 and produce a wretched, vile cauldron of rank deathly noise based grim blackened thrash outburst of utmost blasphemy. We\u2019ve heard similar rantings before from numerous acts since the genre exploded in the 80s, whether in the form of obscure Brazilian death-thrash, all the way to European holocaustic metal. Y\u2019know the sort, Bathory-inspired mayhem mixed with frenzied Satanism and scratchy vocal mocking.<\/p>\n

With Lustful Vengeance<\/em> we find ourselves wrapped up in what at times is an almost amateurish hammering created in some dungeon (or teenager\u2019s bedroom). Hell, if this had come out a few years ago we\u2019d have probably all laughed having heard so much of it before. The vocals at times just seem out of place, especially the mocking smirks of laugher on \u2018Death Ritual\u2019, but throughout this opus the riffs are catchy, oily and underground. Tracks such as \u2018Edifice Of Hatred\u2019 and the laughably titled \u2018Blasphemic Black Death Noise\u2019 do exactly what you\u2019d expect; flail wildly over an overdose of thrashing limbs and grainy yet contagious diseased clattering, and all delivered with thrashing na\u00efve menace.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the 80s anymore, in fact it\u2019s not the black metal infatuated 90s either, but fair pay to bands such as Serum Dreg for continuing to cough up that black \u2018n\u2019 roll attitude littered with windy howls of vocal fury and a guitar sound that reminds one of a rehearsal tape.<\/p>\n

\u2018Holy Disease\u2019 is standard fare when it comes to blackened thrashing, but through the mayhem nice tempo changes are applied, giving the opus a nifty, slick feel. Meanwhile, opener \u2018Rotten Pillar \/ Lustful Vengeance\u2019 begins with nice military-styled percussion and dark, occult atmosphere before transforming into a hideous burp of chugging, distortion and nasty punk aggression. It\u2019s my favourite track on the opus with that ratty chug and those Quorthon-esque slurps of unholy delight. The track also showcases the band\u2019s ability to roam from that edgy yet suspenseful traipse before entering speedier climes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shame that Lustful Vengeance<\/em> is so short at only a hair\u2019s breadth over 22-minutes, but for a descent into hellish, garbled but above all catchy dank black-death-thrash, then why not give this hateful thing a try.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SERUM DREGLustful Vengeance Vrasubatlat \/ Invictus Productions (2018)Rating: 7\/10 Serum Dreg\u2019s unholy debut opus features six ear-shredding heaps of satanic junk that emerge three years after 2015\u2019s cult Impure Blood demo. Such a cacophony is the construction of demonic warlord\u2019s Ad Infinitum (vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards) and Conjure Of Plague (vocals, drums). This fiendish brotherhood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,3961],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-serum-dreg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68755"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68761,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68755\/revisions\/68761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}