Dirty, rotten death metal: the stuff of disgusting nightmares, the kind that effortlessly oozes malevolence and bursts open like an infected sore, pustulating its nastiness all over your dermis and spreading its disease into your core. This is exactly what the gnarly Pennsylvanian trio PERCUSSOR achieve with its latest instalment of violent death metal, "Ravenous Despondency". The fifth (and supposedly final) opus in the band's catalogue of extreme metal, "Ravenous Despondency" places somewhere between early IMMOLATION and MALEVOLENT CREATION. This uncompromisingly technical, brutal, and extreme creation is a burgeoning display of pissed off death metal that's absolutely pushed to its limits and has every inch of life squeezed out of it, crushed, and compacted into a whirling dervish of wrecking ball brutality.

The flaying chaos of "Systematic Savagery" brings a short but carnage-inducing display of spite and societal spew, ramming in as many blasts, double-kicks, and catastrophic instrumentals as is humanly possible in an homage to OSDM goodliness with a contemporary execution. The same seething sonic outpouring comes in "Ulterior Treachery", with its burly and bruising, brutal assault, pummelling you into submission, ready for the unflinching efforts of "Narcissistic, Self Absorbed Disgrace", a track of mucky slurry that'll have you feeling that you need a good scrub in a bath of bleach for at least a week. The dark scorn of "Moldering Existence" fortifies "Ravenous Despondency" with temporal switches that sway from unhinged fury and convulse to lingering fusions of brooding guitar passages and subtle melodies, whilst the scathing and loathsome "Self Exile" spits its splenetic hate and castigation with dirty groove buried deep in its roots and a refrain that spews up out of the pits of your bowels when you bellow it.

By this point, PERCUSSOR really should have made you feel like a worthless piece of shit, but if you don't, "Perpetual Disdain" will take care of that. Devastating, savage, and complete with a trenchant lyrical style, this is a slice-and-a-half of pure fury and detest, with a particularly enjoyable (if short) guitar solo to wallow in. The aggression level notches up to eleven on the title-track with a few thrashy nuances bunged in amongst frantic riffing, whilst "Degradation" opts for all-out war as a fiercely unyielding instrumental with pulsating finger blasting (you'll know what I mean when you get your lugs around it) within the confines of something delightfully percussive heavy. The aptly grim "Bottom Feeder" doesn't end "Ravenous Despondency" on a bum note, rather it bookends this magnificently mayhemic death metal altar of worship on a real high, with a bloody furious display of vocal aggression and the best audial bludgeoning your ears will take.

Verging on a live-sounding production style, with no frills or spills, and very much a "what you see is what you get" attitude, the rugged recording of "Ravenous Despondency" brings a 'wholesome' transparency that creates an enjoyably retro listen with a very humble twist. If this is, indeed, PERCUSSOR's last release, this is a mighty swansong to bow out to and one that I implore you to invest in for the sake of your dark, empty soul. This is disgustingly brilliant filth.<