Originally written by Erik Thomas
After an 8-year lay-off, Indiana’s Gorgasm are back (well, one member is) with the long-awaited follow-up to Masticate to Dominate, an album that, to many brutal death metal fans, is arguably the very pinnacle of the genre.
With only vocalist/guitarist Tom Leski returning to the fold, you’d think Orgy of Murder would not sound like Gorgasm as you remember them. However, Leski has assembled a competent crew featuring members of various other appropriately brutal bands (Sarcophagy and Human Filleted). Aided by plenty of hacking- and stabbing-filled horror samples, misogynistic and requisite gory themes, song titles and lyrics like “Dirty Cunt Beatdown”, “Cum Inside the Carcass”, “Erotic Dislimbing”, Orgy of Murder is a fitting, if rather unnecessary, return for Gorgasm.
At a short 31 minutes, Orgy of Murder is essentially a perfect encapsulation of the genre, if you ever want to explain to your friends what brutal death metal is. Essentially plying a Deicide/Cannibal Corpse-on-steroids clinical tone and pace, mixed with some East Coast slams and oodles of pinch harmonics and layered with super-low vocals gurgling lyrics.
Eight years later and with so many bands playing the style since, as well as death metal simply evolving as a whole, Orgy Of Murder is hardly the genre-changer you’d expect, but then again, it’s brutal death metal, so the ceiling is pretty low. But that being said, Leski and company have managed to craft a expertly played vision of the genre that keeps your attention with a perfect balance of hyper-speed blasting and knuckle-dragging grooves (i.e. “Exhibit of Repugnance”, “Erotic Dislimbing”, “Silence of Dismemberment”) that don’t seem as dumbed-down and focal as some of their pure-slam peers, and it’s the perfect sound track for your next NOW meeting.
Is it offensive? Yes. Is it brutal? Most definitely. Will it be considered as classic as Masticate to Dominate? I doubt it. But will it give you a Gorgasm? Absolutely.
