Track Premiere: Ceremonial Bloodbath – “The Boneless One”

[Cover art by Matt Sidney]

Who is The Boneless One? Is it Garry Scott Davis aka GSD, the inventor of the frontside front foot plant done while skating transitions? Or perhaps Jeff Phillips, who also claimed to have inventor’s glory? Maybe the title goes to Steve Caballero or Mike Vallely, both of whom mastered the Boneless plant and took it to new heights of style and versatility. Given the lack of “Suicidal” flipped brim hats and the fact that they sound nothing like Cryptic Slaughter, it’s probably safe to assume Vancouver’s bestial death metal quartet Ceremonial Bloodbath aren’t referencing skateboarding at all.

No, I have a feeling the animalistic deathmongers in Ceremonial Bloodbath had something else in mind entirely for the fourth track on their upcoming sophomore album, Genesis Of Malignant Entropy. Given its sound, I can only assume that it was written after a post-rehearsal trip to The Downlow Chicken Shack on Wing Wednesday (Only on Wednesdays, friends!). Atop the steaming stacks of bone-in wings, there was one that stood out. Slathered in a darker, more sinister blood-like sauce, its breading chunkier and crispier than the rest, its flesh kissed by the flames of a fiery grill–the outlier born purely of processed flesh was spared by fear until all other wings were consumed. It sat there on the plate amongst the carnage of picked-clean bones and globs of gristle drowning in fungal cheese sauce puddles, patiently waiting to assault the brave palette of the daring soul that would consume it. It’s name was spoken of only in hushed tones and bated whispers around the table:

“…The Boneless One…”

Given how the song turned out, it doesn’t take much to imagine what sort of gestational hell The Boneless One put the sacrificial victims of Ceremonial Bloodbath through. There must have been an initial kick–hot but not too hot as the drums meticulously rip through the hefty breading and into the meat, the spice of the sauce meeting the wet saliva in a potent chemical reaction that sends sparks from the lead guitars as they wail and wriggle their way into every crevice of the mouth. Then BAM! that heat kicks in and those chompers can’t chew fast enough. “Get it down, get it down,” the warlike attack of the guitars evoke in a panic. The vocals wretch into the picture, coughing back fiery curses and blasphemies just before The Boneless One is swallowed. Every bit of searing heat is felt as the thick phlegm of the bass forces the spiced meat down the throat, the flames of the chaotic guitar solo searing the lining of the esophagus and setting fire to every mucus-lined inch like a torch to oil the whole way down–you can almost feel the reaction of the eyes watering, the sweat dripping from the pores, the ecstasy of punishment by flavor.

“The Boneless One” is but a morsel of the battery acid Ceremonial Bloodbath are bringing to the table on Genesis Of Malignant Entropy–their breed of black/death should appeal to not only the Blasphemy warhordes but to fans of ultra-heavy grind and brutal death alike. A punishing experience reserved for the most sadistic gormandizers of the sinister and barbaric. Fuck me, I need a glass of milk.

Genesis Of Malignant Entropy is available for preorder via the Sentient Ruin website and the Sentient Ruin Bandcamp page.