BLOOD FREAK — Live Fast, Die Young... And Leave a Flesh Eating Corpse! (review)

BLOOD FREAK — Live Fast, Die Young... And Leave a Flesh Eating Corpse! album cover

Album · 2006 · Grindcore

4/5 · 2020-05-16
UMUR

"Live Fast, Die Young... and Leave a Flesh-Eating Corpse!" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US deathgrind act Blood Freak. The album was released through Razorback Records in May 2006. It´s the successor to "Sleaze Merchants" from 2003. Blood Freak is a one-man act consisting of "Maniac" Neil Smith, who performs all vocals and instruments on the album.

Stylistically the music on the album is goregrind with death, thrash, and doom metal elements. It´s old school to the bone and Smith even mentions that no drum triggers or drum sequencer were used for the recording of the album. So "Live Fast, Die Young... and Leave a Flesh-Eating Corpse!" naturally features a raw and organic sounding production. It´s a professionally produced release though, and the sound is perfect for the material.

The album features 23 tracks and a full playing time og 67:30 minutes. "Right on!" which closes the album is 23:55 minutes long and consists mostly of silence, so ultimately the album is "only" about 43 minutes long if you disregard the silence. The remaining tracks on "Live Fast, Die Young... and Leave a Flesh-Eating Corpse!" are all between 1 and 3 minutes long, except the 4:14 minutes long "The Nameless Stench of Forgotten Celluloid", which is the longest track featured on the album. So in that respect this is a pretty standard goregrind release.

"Live Fast, Die Young... and Leave a Flesh-Eating Corpse!" is a bit different from your standard fare goregrind release though, because Smith so cleverly incorporates death, thrash, and doom metal elements to the (early) Carcass influenced goregrind that is the basis of the music, which means the tracks are often a bit more varied, catchy, and memorable than what is usual for the genre. The use of samples from horror movies also work really well. The samples are predominantly placed between tracks working as seques, but occasionally also appear within tracks. The vocals on the album vary between a phlegm induced guttural growling, and a higher pitched aggressive snarl. The Carcass influence is clearly audible there.

Upon conclusion "Live Fast, Die Young... and Leave a Flesh-Eating Corpse!" is a high quality goregrind release and a great continuation of the musical direction which was initiated on the project´s debut full-length studio album "Sleaze Merchants (2003)". Lyrically (if you haven´t already guessed it from the album title) we´re dealing with gore/horror themes of the campy type. Song titles like "Gobble Up Your Guts Part 2: Revenge of the Turkey Monster", "Mucouspewing Lungslasher", and "The Screamatorium Drive-in", should give you a good idea of what to expect. A good combination of the vile and the hilariously funny. It´s all done with the right amount of authenticity and high quality songwriting skill, and all things considered a 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.