Review by JD on July 1, 2012.

I have heard my fair share of Goth inspired music. Some blow me away with its macabre brilliance and haunting message, while others make me run away with the cartoonish and very uninspired music that is sadly given to us. With that said, let me introduce you to a band from Atlanta Georgia called Frostbite.

Mixing Gothic Rock with a wall of metal that adds in a good dosing of Industrial music, Goth mainstay Christopher Lee Compton releases his next mind bending, darkness coloured album. With soul collapsing lyrics and quirky-spooky yet heavy at times music, he is a original on his own but the instantly inventive vocal style is not to my liking. Hollow, melody lacking to the point that it never melds into the music and horribly accented, it is a disappointing sound that kills what the music is.

The songs and lyrics themselves are rich in melancholy, power and musicality - but it is the vocals that spoils the mood. Coming through like a very poor vocals renditions of early Cult with Rammstein, this man’s voice kills any hope of having a good album. The music is pretty good for the most part, if he could omit the Industrial repetitiveness a little, but this man seriously needs to hand over the vocal job to someone that can actually sing. The Cookie Monster puking up acid in the back alley would sound better than this shit... and that is the nice version.

The music that Frostbite has is pretty interesting. With some changes, and Mr. Compton giving up the vocals, this would have been amazing to listen to. As of right now, it is a album that had plenty potential going in to be a Goth classic, and it ended up killed unknowingly by its own creator. Musical suicide is not unheard of in all facets of music, but it is sad to behold when face to face with it.

Someone call a priest - this man’s vocals needs the last rites. Sad, is it not?

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 3 (vocals killed this rating)
Production: 6.5
Originality:6
Overall: 6

Rating: 6.1 out of 10

Review by Alex on May 20, 2020.

Cryptworm like the name would imply, has taken some time to get where they're are now as a band, though foreseeable it may be the time and effort sacrificed to arrive at this junction, the slug is here, nonetheless. Due out on Me Saco Un Ojo, is the band's latest EP that stomps through slushy swamps of sickness, Reeking Gunk of Abhorrence. If you're new to bands like Hyperdontia, Cerebral Rot, Undergang and even Ulcerot, then you have much catching up to do, because here in the death metal underbelly, things move rather fast, making it easy to get left behind.

It’s the mud they like, and often attributed to mud are its sluggish and dirty properties, which you will find to be the sonic recurrence on Reeking Gunk of Abhorrence. Offering a short yet satiating collection of 4 messy meals, Cryptworm stir-up a nasty sapropel of deep gutturals, sloppy drumming as if the sticks were covered in slime; and a drunken regurgitated goo of guitar riffs. Appearing to be within the puss-filled parameters of Hyperdontia and Undergang, opening track 'Festering Maggot Infestation' arrives with a most diabolical canker of deformation, ripe with a nauseating stench of old school death metal, Cryptworm vouch the helminth is very much alive, active and even more hazardous to any living organism than before.

Title-track 'Reeking Gunk of Abhorrence' maintains the catchy yet filthy contour that prevailed over their debut EP Verminosis and here it's no different, though I would say the production appears slightly more definitive to unearth and sustain the material's effect. Some sections of the music such as on 'Festering Maggot Infestation' and 'Cesspool of Perpetual Decay' have a head-bashing, fist-pumping, waist-swinging, up roaring type of groove to it that keeps the music moving, so you know its 20-minute run feels even shorter. If you love the deep, stomachy vocals like what you'd hear on a Demilich or Undergang, then Reeking Gunk of Putrefaction has you covered in venomous disgorge; get swallowed!

Since sprouting from an infected sore somewhere in the United Kingdom, Cryptworm's sound and aesthetic without doubt was that region's answer to the American underground of death metal. What other sphacelated things the band holds are yet to be revealed.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10