You know what I’m talking about when I talk about “The Filth”?
Well, Dipygus got The Filth.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about here – and based on forty-plus years of experience with just about any topic, that seems to be the norm – I’m talking about that icky feeling you get from a certain type of death metal, where it feels like both you and it are coated in some sticky goo and lots of dirt… and blood, but not hopefully your blood… and hair, but probably not your hair… These Californians have been patiently pushing forward for a decade now, from more roughshod beginnings that began to coalesce around Bushmeat in 2021 and last year’s strong Wet Market EP. Now, with their third full-length album, they’ve firmly established themselves as fine purveyors of (cue rotten fanfare)… The Filth.
Through that first half, Dipygus shows just how much they’ve sharpened their rusty cleavers in the three years since Bushmeat, with crunching riff and roiling lead marrying up nicely in the likes of “Monrovia, LR 1990,” while the machine-gun kick-drums of “Vipers At The Pony Keg” hit like an anti-aircraft barrage. “Огромный Кальмар (Ross Sea Trawler)” flirts with some off-kilter, twisted melodies, though it’s far from traditionally melodic, devolving into a noisy swell that feeds directly into “Bug Sounds II.”
After that brief synth-noise respite, the second half of Dipygus is sonically similar, albeit with further exploration of those synths, but it’s structured a bit differently: “The Dover Demon” is filthy smasher in line with – and on par with – the earlier half. Things start moving outwards with the closing trio of the wonderfully titled “Rat Lung-Worm,” the eleven-minute “Sacral Brain,” and “The Ochopee Skunk Ape.” At the outset, “Rat Lung-Worm” stomps along in almost death-doom territory at first, with those synths making a return, weaving a melody alongside, atop, and between the spiraling guitars, all of them picking up steam towards a solo in the back half. It’s a quick instrumental introduction before the second side’s centerpiece “Sacral Brain” fades in beneath it, a lumbering beast of filthy death/doom, the longest track on a Dipygus album so far, but a well-crafted divergence into the epic-length. “The Ochopee Skunk Ape” follows the lead set by “Rat Lung-Worm,” a quick instrumental built on guitar squall, synth lines, and sound samples, and between those two and the latter half of “Sacral Brain,” a significant portion of this second side is instrumental, which is certainly not an immediate strike-against, but it does feel like it’s lacking something in the protracted absence of Clarisa Bermudez-Eredia’s ragged growls. Creepy-crawly filthy doomy death is always welcome, and Dipygus brings it quite nicely, in either half, although I will concede that I’m not certain that this one overtakes Bushmeat as their strongest offering to date.
Still, kids, it’s all here: We got cryptids, monsters, bugs; we got rats, snakes, skunk apes… We got dirt, blood (hopefully not yours), hair (maybe not yours), goo… It all adds up to The Filth. Dipygus got The Filth, and it’s a fine fun thing.
