Shivers / Nauseator – Too Gross For Most

Band: Shivers / Nauseator
Title: Too Gross For Most (EP)
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Release Date: 29 May 2020
Country: USA
Format Reviewed: Digital Download

“Too Gross For Most” is a split 7” EP with two tracks each by SHIVERS (featuring Slasher Dave of ACID WITCH) and NAUSEATOR. I must admit I took the title of this release as a bit of a personal challenge. Too gross for me??? Surely not. Well this is from the label that also offers such wholesome delights as GOAT SEMEN, DEATH VOMIT, REGURGITATION and the subtly titled SHITFUCKER (thanks for that guys). I expect that this charming community is a place where the “innocent” days of SLAYER’s “Show No Mercy” and SEPULTURA’s “Morbid Visions” are held in high regard; where metalheads hark back to a time when extreme metal meant dirty, grimy production, gruesome and satanic imagery, brutality and nary a pinch-harmonic to be found. And you know what I say? Why the fuck not. I’ve been listening to MORTICIAN for the past hour, bring it…

Starting out with the two SHIVERS tracks “Butcher Doc’s Shack of Shock” is a dank swamp of dirty, fuzzy, down-tuned guitar, even dirtier, scummily produced drums (with gut pummelling kick drums) and monstrous, multi-layered, strangled vocals. As you might well expect this is unashamedly primitive, gory death metal, stomping along pleasantly enough. While this shares some of the ghoulish aesthetic of Slasher Dave’s main gig ACID WITCH, there’s less of the bells and whistles here, a more sparse sound and none of the spooky halloween atmospherics, or heavy metal trappings.

The second track “Fluids” kicks off with a jaunty Dum-Cha-Dum-Du-Cha rhythm and…. hang the fuck on, pinch-harmonics?? Well that’s right fucked my intro up. But DREAM THEATER this aint (do they even do pinch-harmonics? I bet they do somewhere), this is still by and large scuzzy, unsophisticated, skull bashing, death metal, played by satanic goblins using the bones of your loved ones… or something like that. It’s not big and it’s not clever, but it is fun.

“I’m gonna skin that son of a bitch and wear his face”. And with that helpful introduction we’re into the NAUSEATOR half of the EP. Sonically “I Want To Murder You” is a shade less heavy than the preceding SHIVERS tracks, but if anything more unhinged, with a lurching beat, even less attention to production values and a call and response of gravelly death metal and higher, panicked vocals. Interestingly, when the band break into a guitar solo mid way through, there’s a faint whiff of a rough and ready DEMILICH about the track.

Final track “Dear Cousin Eerie” follows a pretty similar path, this time with a bit more of a manic tempo and heightened feelings of anxiety. And again when the band changes pace for a guitar solo I hear a glimpse of DEMILICH in amongst the merry, primitive death metal pounding.

Just looking at the title and cover art should tell you what lies in store here. This is fun, undemanding, rowdy, cacophonous death metal. I often think to myself that in both movies and music, when you aim for something profound you can produce something amazing, or end up with pretentious rubbish. “Too Gross For Most” is neither, it’s an honest slab of rollicking, dirty death metal. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing wrong with that. 6.5/10 Tom Boatman 

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6.5/10 We may survive!
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