Not a second is wasted on CORRUPTED SAINT's new EP, which is brimming both with the exuberance and bounce of THRASH METAL and the (it must be said) slightly murky grime of DEATH METAL. The band bounces between swaggering, groovy thrash riffs and even in the chaos manages to make certain ones feel like hooks. The rest of the band is equally acrobatic; there are plenty of lightning quick drumrolls and fills and guttural screeches. The ponderous girth of Kyle Sweeny's vocals lends a tortured air whe the situation calls for it and is crushingly heavy. His voice is a big part of what makes "Forced to the Gallows" so easy and satisfying to headbang to. The rest of it of course is the razor wire guitar tone and effortless way the band sneaks melodic acents into their assault.

The drums get to shine on "Proces of Elimination", withits frenetic intro and the midtempo groove in the middle which the drums propell forward and breathe life into. The riff preceding the solo (or more accurately, break) is pure perfection. There is so much happening throughout the EP that I wish the band had opted for a cleaner, less dirty production. It's already pretty easy to pick out what each of the individual instruments is doing and the shifting riffs (especially when they are as melodic and head-turning as those on "Enbalmed Alive") but there are times when it gets a little fuzzy and I am confident that fuzziness is hiding something epic.

Speaking of "Embalmed Alive" (which we should, because it's awesome and the longest song on the EP), the band establishes their knack for melodically charged intense death/thrash in the vein of NO RETURN and DECADENCE (they do not sound particularly like either, but have a similar balance between ferocity and melodicism). The jumping pull-off riff is one of my favorites of the entire EP. "Embalmed Alive" is also probably the clearest song on Mutilated Before the Masses, allowing the melodies to ring out unencumbered by dirty production.

Without a doubt, the worst thing about Mutilated Before the Masses is that it's only 4 songs long. This is an impeccable death/thrash release with multifaceted riffs packed into its relatively short songs and it's hard to get bored of because of that. Any afficonado of THRASH METAL, DEATH METAL (melodic or otherwise) or some combination thereof is sorely mistaken if they don't check this out.