STABBING is a Brutal Death Metal band from Texas. "Ravenous Psychotic Onslaught" is the group's first EP, released by Comatose Music on December 10, 2021.

First of all, I've heard quite a few female Death Metal vocalists (Alissa White-Gluz comes to mind immediately), but I have never heard a woman sound like this. Even though I can't understand a word she's saying (which admittedly annoys me to some extent because it's always better to annunciate, in my opinion), I need to commend Bridget Lynch's absolutely brutal gutturals. You can hear the power in her voice, and stylistically, I guess that is more important than being able to understand the lyrics.

Second of all, the band manages to fit a lot into just 12 minutes - in fact, arguably, they fit too much in. There are so many riffs in this EP, each one of them being very good I might add, but it's too much. You could honestly make a double album out of this EP if you made different songs out of each of the millions of riffs you have here. For example, one of my favorite riffs on this EP is the halftime, tremolo-picked riff that gets repeated once in "Excrement Sarcophagus." Why not turn that into something that becomes more of a prominent theme in a song that uses maybe half of the riffs from the same track?

Third of all, I'm going to get nitpicky about the drum production here. Overall, they sound really tight. However, I really wish the snare had more oomph to it. It almost sounds as if the band is trying to re-popularize the "St. Anger" snare...and no one wants that. A perfect example of why this snare sound doesn't work in my opinion is in the title track. When the snare finally comes in during the first blast beats, it sounds like a Little Tykes toy drum kit, sucking away the power from the riffs almost entirely.

In conclusion, STABBING's first EP shows that the band has a lot of potential. Obviously, as a Brutal Death Metal band, the group is going to focus more on brutality rather than song structure. However, it is still my contention that there needs to be a balance between all-out heaviness and songwriting in order to make something truly memorable. Perhaps, on future releases, the band will get there.