Originally from the beautiful coast of Faro District in the south of Portugal that later relocated to Zürich, Switzerland comes a thick putrid sound that festers and boils with death. With the unapologetic depictions of gore, AMPUTATE amalgamates the elements of old school death with brutality. Since forming back in 2011, the band has had several releases, many of which were independent. With two EP’s, a split and one full-length album all done independently before grabbing the attention of Massacre Records.

AMPUTATE has released a few singles, a full-length album under this label's banner prior to their latest full-length album “Abysmal Ascent”. Which offers ten brutal tracks of death gore. For 39:09 minutes you will be slammed with a thick putrid death. So without wasting any more time let's get right into this.

Album art is decent depicting a cavernous temple with possible influences from an H.P Lovecraft horror. An obsidian looking obelisk with symbols glowing protrudes out of the molten lava stream that flows through the center of a cavernous dark temple. The band name is bold and textured upper left while the album name sits center at the bottom. With the album depicting what it does, I think we can anticipate what comes next.

With a timed in chord progression that hits twice before an onslaught of death ravages your senses. “I Am Genocide” starts the album off with that old school death we all know and love. Caustic vocals coat the track as it carries on with a heavy bombardment of blast beats and thick bass. Solid chord progressions that build the intensity of the track. It has an interesting switch up partially through that changes the tempo as well but it works.

“Hybrid Organism” carries us with a torrent of aggression with steady thick chord progressions. The lead even takes off and shreds, utilizing the whammy and pinches. With power chords a plenty that coat the track and backed by solid bass undertones. We have an amazing instrumental track. ”Extractive Monolith” follows right after with a disgusting use of scales overlapping steady blast beats. This sets the pace of the track as the caustic visceral vocals corrode everything with the stench of death.

One thing to take note of on this album is the production quality. Previous albums had not been produced to the level of this album and for that I am glad to see the advancement in this regard. With the sound of old school death, the brutal undertones that really thicken things up, this album is well crafted. Lyrically, it could be improved a bit on as it seems a little bit simple, but it still works perfectly behind the concepts of the album. Each track does offer its own flavor and adds to the overall theme of the album which was decently structured and written. Overall, a solid death metal album.

“Perpetuum” does not waste any time as its brutality kicks in immediately. This track has all the hallmarks of a traditional death metal band. A simple and yet powerful torrent of aggression that blasts by quickly. A decent end to a great album. The unbriddled raw elements of death just hit hard. A great closing to their latest album.

“Abysmal Ascent” hits hard and fast and stays in the vein of traditional old school death metal. AMPUTATE wanted to stress their focus on their craft without any influence of A.I. They made a point of having everything man made. The vocals were recorded and produced as direct and natural as possible. So what you get with their latest album is the raw brutal death metal that things were meant to be like. I respect the hell out of that. This is an album that you should be adding to your library as it is pure death metal in its raw putrid form.