Cardiac Arrest - The Stench of Eternity

Angry Metal Guy 70

You can’t listen to everything out there and we all have gaps in our metal detection system through which plenty of quality product sluices out. Still, I’m left wondering why I never spent time with Chicago’s death metal maniacs Cardiac Arrest until last week. Active since 2004 and with 7 full-lengths under their belt, this is a Windy City death institution that I completely slept on despite AMG having reviewed their 2018 opus A Parallel Dimension of Despair. On eighth album The Stench of Eternity, these scuzzmongers deliver a nasty sound mixing classic Floridian death with the uglier side of grind and crust and occasional flirtations with meatheaded slam. This brutal brew means you’ll be in for one helluva sick beatdown. That’s a good thing, and maybe a very good thing depending on your bodily durability and appetite for ear destruction. You may want to hold onto something sturdy for emotional support, like a bunker-buster bomb.

After a dramatic intro soundbite about maggots, “Maggot This One” removes your face using rudimentary caveman tools that sound like a hellish blend of Impetigo and early Carcass. Before you can get yourself re-faced, “Victims of the Blasphemy” brings the OSDM cudgel down and mercilessly hammers you with something like Deicide meets Jungle Rot meets Malevolent Creation. You don’t know it yet, but you need this filth pumping through your soon-to-be hardened arteries. The unintentional or suspiciously intentional nod to Slayer’s “Hell Awaits“ at the midpoint is satisfying and gives you a chance to regain some bodily fluids (milk would be a bad choice). This tune is exactly what Steel wants from his OSDM and the ass whippings are just getting started.

There’s a 5-song run here composed of the best death metal I’ve heard this year. Starting with “Bullets are the Only Cure,” Cardiac Arrest brings out the street cleaners with brushes set to “Scrub-a-Dub-Stumprub.” The mid-paced d-beaty chugs are heavy, thick, and as inevitable as Thanos and his fun mitten. Once you’re properly tenderized, the absolute brain fuck of “In the Name of Suffering” rolls over you like an 80-ton Zamboni. With massive chugs and grooves blasting lustily, there’s zero respite from this spectacular piece of leg-day-appropriate abuse. “Born to Be Buried” is like Cannibal Corpse if their collective IQ was reduced to 100, and the shambling death gallop descends into crushing chuggery and insane garbage disposal piggy noises that the whole family can enjoy. And wait til you hear the sick slow-motion mega-chugs that show up midway through “This is How You Die” to mulch your duodenum. With so much winning, how could Cardiac Arrest be stopped? Well, the answer is an on-and-off struggle with bloat. “Means to an End” is a rock-solid song that takes the best ingredients from Autopsy’s puke pâté and shoves them down your throat, but at 6-plus minutes it goes a bit too long. Worse is 11-plus minute closer “From Civilized to Sadistic.” It’s a dandy of a deather with tons of gripping moments, but by the 7-minute mark the bases are well covered and it just hangs around for another 4 minutes eating your lunch meat and rifling through your mail. Shorten these cuts and this clicks up to a GREAT death metal platter immediately. Despite the occasional bloatery, the 48-minute runtime doesn’t feel excessive as most cuts are nasty, brutish, and short. Also, kudos to the production which grants a gnarly tone to the guitars and a huge punch to the drums.

The riffs make the death metal, and Adam Scott and Tom Knizner bring the cargo bepantsed goods in large volumes. Whether they’re going for the throat with d-beaty thrash or pounding you into the Earth’s core with massive grooves, they know how to inflict caveman culture on the sophisticated. The 10-ton chugs that populate most songs feel as essential as oxygen and never get boring. These hellcats are masters at timing too, knowing exactly when to shift gears to keep things fresh and forward-moving. Three band members are credited with vocals and I have no clue who does what, but the combination of harsh styles reminds me of the Symphony of Sickness era of Carcass and everything sounds wonderfully diseased and incurable. The whole package is tight and the crew checks all the boxes while keeping a size 13 boot up your ass. That’s talent, folks.

The sheer intensity of the shellacking I received from this odious hunk of offal brings me back to wondering how I missed the Cardiac Arrest boat as long as I have. I feel great shame about it and I’m now digging through their back catalog with fiendish fervor. If you want a cracked brain and a bruised gallbladder, put your ears on The Stench of Eternity and turn it WAY UP. This is a special kind of ugly… like your Mom! Gottem.



Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Hells Headbangers
Websites: cardiacarrestdeathmetal.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/cardiacarrestdeathmetal
Releases Worldwide: May 17th, 2024

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