Vehemency
Judging by its appearance, and several references to GG Allin I’ve seen in relation to this album, one or another could think that Repuked’s debut full-length Pervertopia would be full of tongue-in-cheek punk played under influence. That is why it comes as a slight surprise that Pervertopia is so solidly hammered death metal instead of mere random punk bursts.
Don’t get me wrong, Pervertopia indeed is filthy, ugly and nasty, with an uncountable number of references to vomiting in song titles. Vocals, varying from lower grunts to higher pitches, also take care of the puking element of the band, spewing the filth convincingly. Production-wise, Pervertopia sounds huge, guitars having the main role with their vast, crushing sound, not to forget the rather simple yet effectively battered drums.
For the most part, the tempo is kept at quite high, ”Toxic Constipation” being a major exception from the code though as it’s a long, doom-driven piece of slow menace. Proper highlights come hard to mention as the 45-minute whole doesn’t offer any truly outstanding compositions - instead, all the songs are equally vomit-inducing - which becomes the album’s only main problem, as there’s not that much to remember afterwards, though some songs like ”Mental Vomit” and ”Chemically Wasted” (with its maniacal, hypnotizing (!) instrumental outro section with a constant blast beat and a lot of noise) do get stuck in my head.
Along with the other January release, Maim’s Deceased to Exist, Soulseller Records has again spawned a solid death metal release into the world, a release worth of the attention of those who like their old school death metal with a load of nastiness instead of any occult imagery that seems to be so common today. With a little more focus on memorable songwriting, I could be impressed to much higher extent next time these Swedes come around, but Pervertopia is already a fine and enough endurable installation into the genre.