The County Medical Examiners - Official Website


Forensic Fugues And Medicolegal Medleys

United States Country of Origin: United States

1. Autopsy Suite
2. Medicocriminal Entomology
3. Vitreous Humor
4. Epicedium For Epidermal Slippage
5. nh2,(ch2)4nh&c5,h14,n2 (Putrescine & Cadfaverine)
6. Organ Harvest (The Anatomical Gift Act)
7. Riggormortis Posthumous Muscular Rigidity
8. Algor Mortis: The Linear Rate Of Cadaveric Cooling
9. Livier Mortis: Gravitational Blood Pooling
10. Pugilistic Burn Postures
11. Y-Shaped Thoracoabdominalincision
12. y=1285/x

Review by chrisc7249 on January 8, 2023.

Funeral doom… perhaps the genre of metal I had the hardest time fully grasping. It took me numerous albums from numerous bands, spanning over the genre's 3 decades of existence to fully start to enjoy. One of the bands that helped me get into funeral doom full time was certainly Germany's Ahab, a band that has received a ton of love from the underground metal community, particularly for this album, their debut, "The Call of the Wretched Sea," released in 2006.

The first thing that grabbed my attention about this record was the amount of sheer heaviness injected into this thing. Funeral doom is naturally heavy due to its absurdly slow pace and droning guitars, but Ahab has some seriously killer breakdowns on this thing that makes this leagues heavier than most other albums of its type. Not deathcore breakdowns, thankfully (that… might work?) but genuinely destructive death metal riffs that drag the listener into the tides of fury that then envelop your feeble body, forever to drown in the wretched sea… these are most noticeable on the tracks, "Below the Sun," "Old Thunder," and "The Sermon," which all build up to these intense moments perfectly, and release all their energy at the right time. It's impressive… I wasn't expecting something so sinister sounding in a genre as melancholic as this one.

The other thing I enjoy is Ahab's penchant for melody that is almost unmatched in this genre. The melodies on this are absolutely gorgeous, atmospheric and engaging… they're actually pretty virtuous, given the genre, and definitely set the mood for the album very well, feeling otherworldly and melancholic as one would expect from this genre. Add this to a pretty decent vocal performance and creative drumming, and Ahab sounds like they're destined for greatness in the grand scheme of extreme metal.

The only off putting thing about this record, as I find to be the case with 99% of funeral doom… it's very, very long. Individually, the songs probably add up to like an 8, maybe even a 9 out of 10, but as a full length album, the most I could give it is a 7/10. This is because, at 67 minutes long, the album tends to drone on for far too long to keep my undivided attention for the entire duration. It's beautiful music, for sure… but all of the songs follow a similar formula and have very little variation, which is all well and good when listening to a song or two, but as a complete record, it does start to lose my attention as my mind wanders off elsewhere.

Still, if you ever wanted to get into funeral doom and older records like "Stormcrowfleet," "Epistemological Despondency," and "Stream from the Heavens" are too raw, this is a very, very respectable, modernized funeral doom record that's worth a listen a few times, as it is very engaging and captivating. Those who can tolerate longer album lengths might enjoy it even more than I do. Definitely a must listen for fans of the genre, if you haven't already.

Rating: 7 out of 10

  Views

Review by Allan on February 25, 2003.

If you called The County Medical Examiners an early era Carcass clone, they’d be sure to thank you. They like Carcass that much, yes. Usually I’m not for bands that don’t have an ounce of originality in them, but what can I say? The County Medical Examiners just happened to have made a great slab of grindcore, with the one and only Carcass as their sole guide. Complete with real medically certified pathologists and a medical student, this trio’s debut album “Forsenic Fugues and Medicolegal Medleys” makes a surprisingly deep incision.

The County Medical Examiners keep things pretty straightforward, and are probably the closest thing to Carcass that one will find. “Forensic Fugues…” tends to wander around the “Symphonies of Sickness” or “Reek of Putrefaction.”

What might be important to most is the production of an album. Many seemed to be turned off from Carcass’ rather limiting production jobs on the aforementioned albums. You’ll be glad to know that the production on “Forensic Fugues…” is good. The instruments ring out loud and clear for the most part. One thing to note is that there are only three instruments coming out though. Fairbank is the sole guitar player. Understandably that might put a few people off, but it comes off well with the riffs since there is quite a lot of noise made by the blast-beat happy drummer and three vocals.

Vocally it’s important to mention that The County Medical Examiners have that multi-vocal attack. Pretty much two types of vocals are present; the low gurgle and the higher pitched scream. The low gurgle works, I suppose, but it tends to sound like one of your friends who make a poor imitation at what death vocals sound like when you let them listen to something in your death metal collection. The higher pitched vocals are excellent however, and really carry a grotesque and dirty feel to them, just like they should!

Bottom Line: Even if you aren’t a big Carcass worshipper but you enjoy grindcore, I can’t think of a reason why not to check out The County Medical Examiners. Well-done grindcore. Nothing more, nothing less.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 7
Atmosphere: 6
Production: 7.5
Originality: 4
Overall: 6.5

Rating: 6.2 out of 10

  Views