At nearly 15 years since their inception, you can’t really call brutal death metal label New Standard Elite “new” anymore, but in that time they’ve certainly become a, um… standard of eliteness in that realm. Even more than delivering great metal, however, is how they seem to have a pretty good grip on the bands pushing the style into the furthest reaches of what can reasonably be called music. Merely slamming in delightfully ignorant fashion isn’t always quite enough, not when there are true brainworms pulling the strings. Adding a huge dose of the preposterous and abstract goes a long way towards arriving at something really outside the norms of society. This is the label currently delivering Trichomoniasis to us, after all.
With that in mind, what follows is a roundup of the demos released in 2024 by New Standard Elite. Some are obviously pushing the bounds of decency while others are merely focused on the goal of delivering quality slams. Whatever the exact approach, all are good discoveries from NEW STANDARD ELITE. Enjoy… or don’t enjoy, enjoyably.
Celestial Bifurcation – Demo 2024
What it is we’ve got here: Sub-3-minutes of hyperblast, sass-riffed brutality. Imagine the love child of Brodequin and Defeated Sanity coming up with a really bad case of dry heaves while performing at a children’s recital in honor of Terrence Hobbs. Show up for the near-grind scope of “Mephistophelian Dimension,” but stay for the gloriously greasy and stretched sinew of “Infinite Spaghettification.” High promise here, especially if you like your ignorance tempered with a lot of covert brains.
Play this over the school intercom when you’re tired of announcing the day’s lunch and you want to break bad in a manner that is both hilarious and highly impressive to your classmates.
Impalement – Demo 2024
What it is we’ve got here: A couple tracks delivering the kind of ultra viscous splatter gore that ensures none of those pesky flies are gonna escape the grip of their dinner, no matter how much the blasts try to tease them out. “The very pants I was returning!” he stated, knowing that whatever filth Kramer fell into wasn’t nearly as disgusting as whatever the bullfrog at the mic is belching on about. Like Disgorge and Devourment met at a Jell-O mold convention.
Bust this out at family Thanksgiving when everyone is napping after all that turkey. Wake them up to the fear that all those desserts were used to remodel the living room.
Abhorrently – Demo 2024
What it is we’ve got here: Indonesian (of course) brutech that on the surface sounds rather standard until you consider the vocals. And just what, pray tell, is going on with those vocals? Jossi Bima is so buried and low in register that he sounds like an extremely pitch shifted Attila Csihar performing demented throat singing from below a wet pile of slaughterhouse viscera. And of course it works, because 1. Extremely stout riffs, and 2. INDONESIAN BRUTAL DEATH METAL.
Blast this loudly when you and all your metal pals are still trying to find the final missing links between Suffocation and Trichomoniasis.
Limbless – Orgy of Disembowelment
What it is we’ve got here: One raw, knuckledragging, extremely ignant track of slamming brutal death metal. The slower it gets, the goopier it becomes. No microphone is safe from whatever form of sentient spittle is emerging from Corpse Fiend’s unholy hell maw. With lyrics such as “DECAYED CHUNKS OF HUMAN MEAT / MAGGOTS AND INSECTS FEAST / MUTILATED ORGANS EVERYWHERE / ENTRAILS RIPPED THROUGH RECTAL CAVITY” (caps lock straight from Metal-Archives), you can bet this band isn’t confused about their modus operandi.
Play this when you need a major palette cleanser from all that “clean” slam that NSE is always dropping on us.
Gutting – Demo 2024
What it is we’ve got here: Extreme heft. Gutting plays brutal slamming death metal at about the limits of possibility in terms of heaviness. I’m serious, these two tracks and nine minutes are preposterously heavy, especially when things slow to a caveman crawl. Even when it almost gives into a bit of a swinging swagger or touch of infectious riffing it maintains that single-minded dedication to crushing everything in the near vicinity. Heavy, heavy, heavy death metal, here, folks.
Hit play when you’re having a slow day on the terlet and you need a track titled “Release the Tension (In those Intestines)” to get things moving, with a little help from Suffocation’s Ricky Myers like you’ve never heard him before.
Repugnancy – Vile Ancient Transfiguration
What it is we’ve got here: Grind-speed, hammering, technical, and pretty wickedly great brutal death metal that feels like a total tease at only five minutes. Everything goes by in the flashiest of flashes. Riffs pop in and out without even saying hello; solos last all of about three seconds; drums pound with all the heft of the riffs while having those “artsy” ping blasts; vocals growl and scream and rant and almost lead the catchy moments before another weapon comes in destroys everything in sight.
Drop the needle on this whenever you want to impress your friends with your ability to dig up the latest and greatest sounds in brutality, or when you need to clean your grout. It’s gotta be good for that too.
Deleterious – 2024 Demo
What it is we’ve got here: The type of semi-rawness in guitar tone where you can almost picture hair growing off the strings. It’s a fuzzy, fat form of brutal slam, but it’s still extremely in the brutal slam department, with super deep guttural vocals and the type of bottom feeding riffs that essentially force moshers into a low crouch without their knowing. Like several of the other bands in this roundup, Deleterious makes a big point with tempo changes, especially when the molasses hits the strings.
Hit the button on this when trawling the shallows around the Philippines for whatever might be down there. Because the band is from the Philippines, and because it’s low, baby.
